Chindie

Yes I've had the radio on most of the day, there was seemingly a clear switch in approach from yesterday, where they appear to have pushed him on some details of his background, and grounding, and made him somewhat uncomfortable and lead to him apparently giving some pathetic answers. Today seems to have allowed him to talk more freely of his plans and it appears he prefers that. And of course it also allowed him to spout plans like murdering the Norwegian PM with a bayonet and releasing footage online, or how he had discovered that making a bomb was more difficult than he'd anticipated so chose to only make one and hoped to take out the entire government with it. He's a supreme narcissist. He likes to talk about himself and what he would do and what he did do, and why he feels he needed to. I don't think he's evil. He's an extremist, with questionable views. He acted on his beliefs in horrific manner. I'm interested in the case as it's rare you get to see a lone wolf terrorist (if you accept he is one, it's debatable), let alone have him stand trail and put it in stark terms what made him come to conclusion that mass murder was the best vehicle for his commentary. Theres been a rather sad spin on the violent videogames thing from some corners of the media today too. HE apparently spent a year or so of his life obsessively playing WoW, and later CoD. Thats been spun into somehow being significant to what he did, with WoW being described as a 'violent war game' (this is a game, lets bear in mind, that will soon have an expansion featuring pandas as playable characters), and Cod allegedly helping him in commiting the Utoya massacre. Lets all forget he had firearms training and is clearly on the extreme end of the poltical spectrum, vidyagames is what did it!

Got to the first ending, and started a NG+. NG+ is where the 'meta-game' becomes more pressing, as you can assume you've hoovered up most of the easy pick ups and whats left is the hidden stuff you need to crack. It's also where traipsing over the game becomes more important. And I find my enjoyment vanishing from it. I dunno if it's just me, but getting anywhere on the game is a pain in the **** arse. You end up looking at the painful excuse of a map, eyeballing roughly where you need to go, and then meander over the level you're in checking every **** door to work out if that is the one that will get you to the next step of where you need to go. Sometimes it's not even clear how you might get to the next stage of where you need to go. Even when it's painfully obvious, working your way up and down the same environmental puzzle you've done before is tedious as all ****. It's putting me off really getting seriously into the game, honestly. I think it's also the point where most people, myself included, are going to end up having to turn to guides to get going anywhere. I'd worked out some of the 'meta game' already - there is a fairly obvious reference to part of the larger scale of puzzles at one moment and a quick note and a keen eye will see you work your way through puzzles related to that... but then the other parts, I don't have a **** clue. Interestingly, for me at least, the most awesome moment of the wider puzzle was also what I can only assume is one of the easiest, requiring a smart phone. It's also dumped me to the dashboard 4 times today, which has also thumped my enjoyment through the floor, it has to be said. The shines worn off.

Anyone else find Theresa May's latest **** up hilarious? They had a little discussion on 5Live earlier about what a deadline is

It seems to have been a combination of 'couldn't be arsed' and 'were unable to be arsed'. They realised that they'd ended up with so many different permutations of potential team mates that they'd end up with so much extra work to properly implement them all, so they made most characters from 2 into cameo non-playable appearances. And some of them get a really raw deal - Thane spends the entire game, bar 2 cutscenes, sat in hospital, Kasumi has a 2 minute appearance in a side mission, Samara and Jack have token appearances in other missions... To be honest the entirety of ME3 plays out like a game trying to juggle an unwieldy amount of variation in it's inception. And often it's solution is to reduce the impact of variety as far as possible...

You are too young to remember and appreciate the 16 bit era you see. I'll have you know I loved my SNES (and still do) . I'm playing on a 32" LED set at about 6/7 foot distance and the pixel style doesn't play well to my eyes. I think the combination of the HD fidelity and exaggerated pixel art style is a little... harsh.

Just did one of the 'smartphone may be required' bits. I must admit, simple as it is... it's kinda magical. Fez is interesting. As a platformer it's nothing special and the gimmick soon becomes second nature to the extent that, if you get stuck, hitting the triggers a bit will help you out... ...but even after only a couple of hours you can see all this stuff building up in the background that at the moment I haven't got the faintest clue the meaning or significance of. Definitely not flawless though. Its jump physics aren't great, the map is terrible, and the art style gets on my nerves a little. It's also incredibly easy to miss things, given that most... levels (?)... act as little puzzles in themselves that often only work in 1 direction it seems, so as you work your way up the level if you miss something it's awkward to get back to it. Given that it also saves constantly I can see it being possible to end up in endless death loops quite easily. Other than that though... it's kinda great.

A lot of TV series these days outdo, or stake a place to sit alongside as an equal, films. There are things you just couldn't do as a film, even a series of films. Game of Thrones for example, has such a scale and depth to it that attempting to make a film of it would be an exercise in futility.

Street Fighter x Tekken is fun, but it's the kind of thing where to get the most out of it you really, really need to be good at it and be able to handle yourself online or have a bunch of mates who are decent and up for regular games. Overall, MK is the better game. SFxT is basically Street Fighter with some craziness added in and a bit more of a straight tactical edge - you have to be really aware of your meters and constantly be switching out characters. Then you've got the DLC issues with it which are a bit galling...

I've been playing Trials Evo all morning. It's good. It's very good.

Today's proceedings in the court seem to be largely aimed at discrediting Breivik and his claims. Theres been reports that some of the families of victims laughed at some of his answers today.

I'd written off Fez as 'just another indie platformer'. And apparently it is. Until you finish it first time round. I've been hearing that the game isn't all that it appears - it turns into a crazy 'meta-puzzler'. Which is why I've just bought it

Mentioning the Avengers... The Face-off Nick Fury and Loki have a chat Thor's got Cap's back (Possibly the least impressive thing to have been shown so far).

I always heard it was a great game and I like the art design of it all, but the micromanagement focus it seems to have puts me off a little. I played and finished the second - ropey as **** with many corners cut but I think I'd feel more comfortable with the gameplay that had than what I suspect the first has.

Individually reading out the charges against him, the killing of 77 people included, would take a while. He cried when they played a propaganda video he'd made. Emotionless when the charges were read out, bordering on bored. Makes sense I guess considering he said he did not recognise the authority of a court put in place by a government that supported multiculturalism.

I picked up Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Collection while my former employers collapsed, for a bargain £4.98, which I feel like I should get going on... but I feel a little reluctant somehow.

The crossing to Mexico when the song 'Faraway' by Jose Gonzalez begins is one of the moments I mentioned as making this game stand out. It's an absolutely stand out moment in gaming imo.

Breiviks trial has started proper today. He has accepted he committed the acts, but predictably he's pleaded not guilty, claiming he acted in self defence. Despite initially being found mentally unstable, he's been reassessed as sane. The trial intends to decide if he is sane or not, leading to a decision whether he would be committed into psychiatric care or jailed. Tomorrow he will be given the stand. Norway is rightly worried he will use that as a grandstand so will be putting precautions in place to prevent him using it as a rally.

Just watched the latest ep of GOT actually. Decent episode but definitely one that foxuses rather more of setting up shit thats going to happen later rather than have shit happening. Still, a good watch and things are bubbling away nicely for the series ahead.

I suspect partly it might be to do with the fact that the movie rights to those properties being spread across different studios. Marvel had some issues with that themselves (the films in the series have had different publishers and they've had some wrangling going on trying to sort it). The DC franchises don't seem to grab people like the Marvel ones do as well. Sure, Batman and Superman have staying power with people, but Green Lantern and the Flash, and Aquaman... not so much. Marvel took a big gamble with making the Avengers - it's not like Thor or Cap have the publics imagination either. But they pulled it off. It's worth remembering that they managed it because they started up their own studio too - DC haven't done that, and I doubt they will. Their big names are locked up with other studios and they won't get them back, and I doubt those studios would work together, not least on such a big gamble (especially when the Green Lantern already flopped).

And a great many of us knew he was an awful footballer before he'd even set foot in our club. Damning that we paid money for him, absolutely damning.

I go for the dishevelled unshaven look now rather than the 'tache. Less hassle. Haven't graduated from the shirts though...

MJ would've enjoyed watching our kids. Bit old, for his tastes, no?

Just finished Breaking Bad season 1. It's superb. I love how it regularly is funny but it's not entirely playing for those laughs, it just so happens that theres a dark humour in the little things going on sometimes. Looking forward to starting the next season. I remember the first season was picked up over here by FX, I assume it didn't take off because it appeared to vanish from the airwaves as fast as it arrived.

This will be every Manchester United fan on the planet having seen that lineup and understanding that they only need turn up against even a good Villa side to walk away with 3 points.