Chindie

I've decided I can't be doing with waiting for the blu-rays this time round with Game of Thrones, so have watched the 2 eps of the new series today. It's a slightly different show now, more confident and more grand in scale (and scope), which I like, but I have to agree that it's teetering on the edge of having too much going on. You've got all the characters from the first series spreading out into entirely their own plot lines, and still introducing more twists and turns and characters, it's growing a littlw unwieldy. I can still follow it all, but I think they've got to be wary of making the thing collapse under it's own weight. But in the 2 eps so far, it's been bloody good. It's kind of... skipped over some things though - the red head with Stannis, has had pretty much no explanation whatsoever, beyond the fact she's clearly a foreigner (with a wonderful journeyman accent, one minute she's Irish the next she's Dutch by way of Arabia), she's manipulative and has all the trademark nods that the audience shouldn't trust her as far as they could throw her. I actually had to look up what the hell was going in the scene they introduce her in - I was following it but didn't 'get' the significance or purpose on first viewing, and I could see an awful lot of people missing the lot entirely.

Young was hated by a number of other clubs fans during his time with us for his playacting and the like (and he certainly was disliked by a few Villa fans for it too - I certainly got fed up of the once-per-match shin holding hobble by the time he left, and didn't approve of his falling over either). I think at Manchester United he's being given more opportunities to do and has more exposure of doing it thanks to his current club getting more air time than just about anyone else. Yesterdays antics would be something I'd be ashamed of, it's one of the more blatant, obvious and cynical examples of diving I can remember.

They probably had a second hand one at £45 to encourage you to subliminally grab the new one at a cheaper price. Bargain! Oh wait, its a clever business strategy that the customer wouldnt understand. ...sigh.

From what I know they're basically getting things going again, they should start receiving new stock again shortly if they've not already.

I don't see the problem with this either. If the group were saying "we can heal you with prayer, for just £9.99..." then clearly that's wrong. As it is I don't see what harm they're doing. The ASA doesn't care whether an advert is for profit or not, they care only for the... 'wellbeing'... of the consumer. You can read the adjudication on the subject here, but in short the issues with their adverts were 1. The claims of healing were misleading and unsubstantiated (in effect they gave the impression you would be healed, not that they believed you might) 2. They claim they could heal specific illnesses (which exacerbates the above. They also made reference to healing cancer on their website) 3. In making those claims they were irresponsible and provided false hope to sufferers 4. The ads could discourage people from seeking/continuing genuine medical attention, and therefore possibly endanger themselves. All of which were upheld, and therefore they concluded that the adverts were not allowable. They're big on misleading people, especially on medical matters, and for them, the cost matters not. That it requires people to be particularly gullible (or, more accurately and kindly in this instance, perhaps desperate) to be mislead by this, only hastens the requirement for the ASA to nip it in the bud. That these MPs are happy for that kind of thing to go on, and to use rather dumb arguments to back it up, is rather damning, imo. Although I'm lead to believe they've stood for other pretty grim things in the name of Christianity, so it figures I guess.

Just picking up this.. I'm certain that both Loki and Thor's reappearance will be explained. A lot of talk has been that the shot from the trailers that has Thor riding on top of a jet in a storm is his 'reappearance' on Earth. I would not be surprised if they use the method Loki references in Thor, about the bifrost not being the only way into and out of Asgard, for Thor's reappearance. As for Loki's getting to Earth... no idea. But his character is a trickster and one of the more powerful in the Marvel canon, so they'll have something worked out that ties into that. I can say that his reappearance on Earth in the film happens in Germany, at a concert - he appears in full regalia and forces the audience to bow before him. Portman is not appearing (sadly, drool), true, but they were conscious to that and have referenced her character and her relationship with Thor in the film, they've said they going to 'have a moment' to it, where they'll explain quite why Thor isn't/can't go to Jane right now. I'm also unsure Thor has the legs for a franchise. If it did, it'd be a very different beast to the Iron Man franchise though (third already on the way, incidentally), perhaps it'd be interesting.

Schoolboy error. Water is a valuable commodity, and has a cost. Now prayer... prayer is free. Prescription prayer, 100% profit.

Apologies, you appear to be represented by a dud. On the plus side, he might have your back if you set up a business where you claim your prayers can influence lottery results, provided a mate of yours will testify you prayed for his ticket and he subsequently won a tenner.

I think its impossible to play it totally straight, and I don't think I'd want that, either. It's just that the recent spate of TV spots and clips released (I think theres been about 5 in the past fortnight, at least) seem to be pushing the comedy line a little more than I'd like. The Black Widow fight I linked earlier on is, at times, played like a comedy sketch, and not a particularly good one... Niggles, all the same. Less than 3 weeks to release now. Cannot wait! Considering IMAX-ing it.

I read about this earlier and struggled to believe it. Quick back story - a Christian group in Bath, who claimed without doubt that prayer, and God, can heal the sick, handed out leaflets and advertised that belief with specific reference to numerous disases and maladies (from the fairly mundane like back pain through things like MS and paralysis), with happy testimonials to back it all up. The ASA subsequently investigated this advertising and effectively asked them to stop until they made changes to their advertising that, in essence, required them to add an element of doubt to their claims (basically saying 'We believe our prayer can help you!'), as their claims were unsubstantiated, testimonials not counting in ASA opinion. Step forward Christians in Parliament, and in particular chair Gary Streeter MP, and Vice Chairs Gavin Shuker MP and Tim Farron MP, who sent this letter to the ASA... Pulled from Total Politics' report on this If any of the above men are your MP, your neighbours appear to voted in morons. Who endorse advertising that misleads the public, and further, charlatans. A Guardian response piece that pulls apart quite why this is absurd, lest endorsing misleading advertising to prey on the sick is not enough of a reason to think these fellas should be given short shrift. EDIT - I thought the reference to Muamba was particularly... interesting

'Hulk... Smash!'. New Avengers TV spot, few new bits and bobs in the 30 secs, not sure about 'Smash' bit, I hope it's been cut a little. The latest TV spots and clips released have really played up a more light hearted comedy edge, which makes me wonder quite what the tone of this is going be. I don't mind a few jokes (Thor, for example, can be genuinely watched as a run of the mill comedy imo and that doesn't really harm it) but playing it too much is not going to be good.

Things largely back to normal it seems now.

It'd take direct divine intervention or Liverpool literally not turning up for us to get a thing from this game. It's going to be a car crash. Liverpool must be jumping for joy seeing that shambles on our teamsheet.

Batistuta. One of my favourite strikers, he could have monstered most leagues but I think he'd have been made for the English game - strong, great in the air, a wonderful shot, a superb finisher and not without a little skill with the ball (about all you could ask for more of imo for the perfect striker was a little more pace). And you'd be talking about a possible clash of 2 quite similar strikers in their prime what with Shearer at that time too. Would have been fascinating.

The radio report I heard on this earlier claimed that one of the pilots was apologising profusely to people on the ground. Which is good of him, I guess.

Yep, it's superb.

Going back to this today methinks. I can't remember exactly where it's going to dump me since I left it at a particularly broken part of Blighttown, but hopefully I can take a different path to another area. I remember feeling like I needed a better weapon than the Drake Sword by then...

As I said, the PS3 version of ME2 has the interactive comic of the first game at the start, it gives you the story of the first game and lets you make choices on the big decisions from ME1 to carry over into ME2.

1 has dated quite a lot. It kicks off the story obviously and has some great moments, and introduces some great characters you'll know and love for the entire series. But it's gameplay was always a bit messy, it didn't have the polish you might expect. They really messed up things like the inventory - you end up running round with stacks of armour and guns that you constantly have to trawl through to decide what to use and what to ditch and what upgrades to use and what to dump in this messy inventory system that becomes a hassle. In 2 they completely ditched that, making the game a little less customisable but much, much easier. It also has the worst graphical glitches of the series. The entire series suffers with texture pop in, but in 1 its terrible. What is worth noting though, is that considering you bought a PS3 recently, the PS3 edition of ME2 opens with a little 10 minute long 'motion comic' that fills in the story of 1 (since that game wasn't released on the PS3) and allows you to make a lot of the decisions from that game that can colour 2 and 3. So you can almost get the best of both worlds - you'll miss out playing the first game but you'll know whats going on and get to make the choices players who've played from the start will have made. EDIT - The PS3 edition also includes all the DLC for the game except the last piece, Arrival, which isn't very good anyway. So you'd also get a lot of add on content for free too, including a couple of the best missions in the entirety of ME2 and a couple of bonus characters.

At that kind of money a headset is probably your best bet, especially if down the road you'll be wanting to invest in a serious sound system. Turtle Beaches are the name people gun for, and they are apparently pretty good on their midrange up products. Their PS3 compatible range all have 'P' in the name - for example PX21 are PS3 and 360 compatible, as are the XP500s (the first letter designates the console they were initially aimed at, in effect). And a fair few of their models work with things like blu-ray players and the like IIRC.

I went off Amazon a little when I discovered that they encouraged people to use their US Price-Check app by offering 5% discounts on items you intended to buy if you used the app in a shop first - i.e. they were encouraging people to walk into a shop, look around, pick something up, scan it with their phone, and then buy it from them with a discount. There's something a bit grim about that I just don't like. This news doesn't massively surprise me. Every large company tax dodges somehow. Or should that be tax avoids...

I think all things considered the second game has the right mix. 1 has big ideas but it really feels like the ideas didn't quite match up to what they could do at that point in time, and 3 suffers a little plot-wise (and of course the ending is woeful). But 2 had everything, nearly. I think most of all 2 succeeds because it has the best collection of characters in the series, has a strong plot (that almost plays like a side story to the main events set up in 1 at times), and has tighter more confident gameplay than the first. At it's best, it's been a great series. Shame it lets itself down. Speaking of which, they've announced 'Extended Cut DLC' that'll be free for everyone in the summer, which will 'expand' the ending with additional cutscenes and epilogues. Can't help thinking that they really could have called it the 'Fudging it hopefully quiet people down' DLC.

More Avengers-y stuff, Black Widow is supposed to be pretty badass... (Video has a plot spoiler in it, possibly a biggie).

I got made redundant last week, and pretty quickly received this form to fill out that I could use to claim for redundancy, lack of notice, owed holiday pay, and owed wages, and the thing basically says fill it out asap as the longer you take, the longer they take. I can't claim for redundancy, but I was entitled to 28 days holiday that I never took, and at this moment in time I am owed wages for my final 3 weeks. Thing is, I might get paid this week for those, but I'd have to wait til Friday at best to find out. But I needed to fill in that form. So I've filled it as things stood when I filled it in, i.e. they owe me 3 weeks wages. I've no idea why this annoys me, but it does.

Super 8 is perfectly fine but you'll either love it or hate it for how much it's a homage to Spielbergs 80s sci fi and kids adventure films. The entire thing is dripping with memories of things like ET, to a lesser extent Close Encounters, etc etc. I found it slightly annoying - it's a effectively a photocopy of a collage of Spielberg work, right down to pinching, completely, his fascination with strained father son relationships. If you want to watch a film with that kind of feel and atmosphere, you'll love it (perhaps a little less so in the final 20 mins or so - it all goes a little wonky). You may also find the lens flare really annoying. Tintin on the other hand, I found to be a really nice gentle family film. You have to settle into the way it looks, which might take a while (the characters move like real people, of course, but don't look real with the bulbous faces and tiny eyes, but then are 'drawn' to such high quality they still manage a little of the uncanny valley effect - it's odd), but then you settle in for a turn your brain off adventure. It moves a little slowly at times and has an obvious structure - plot exposition, chase, plot exposition, action scene, plot exposition, chase - and also seems to be at pains to point out everything like it assumes you can't follow the plot, but for all that it's just nice entertainment. Has some very broad family humour, some great action sequences, looks great... it's a good watch imo.