Chindie

1. No. 2. Yes. 3. Depends. 4. Yes. 5. I bloody wish. 6. Can be a self esteem boost/confidence boost if you've hit hard times in that respect, but I'd say more than bragging rights (though it also could be, especially in a 'lads' situation) it's just a simple pleasure.

It horrifies me people like him have an audience filling his pockets. Evil bastard.

Been given a heads up that there could be a job going at a mates work, guarenteed hours and higher wage than I currently earn, which I could certainly do with, and he could put in a good word and the like. The problem is I'm not sure I really want to do the job (it's not a career thing, just a job to get some more in my pocket), it's gonna be a palava to get to and from, and I don't want to give up my other job but this one will cause issues to arise with that one (I get hours largely on the basis I can work more or less whenever) because it's gonna be long shifts, some over night meaning I am less available. I also like my current job and don't really want to drop more issues on my boss by being a pain to rota around as we've had a load of trouble with people leaving and hours being tight. But I feel like I should go for it because the money is hard to turn down. Really can't make my mind up.

I was on the verge of tears a couple of times thinking about this yesterday. I came out of work and heard he was dead. I watched some of SSN when I got home, and listened to 606 on the night with Robbie Savage spending most of the hour understandably choked up. I concur with I think Trent's comments earlier - you never, ever heard a bad word about Gary Speed. He was one of the few players from other sides I liked while he was playing, he was such a great mid. He mastered the late run into the box before Cahill was even thought of. I'd never met the chap, I wasn't Welsh, and obviously he was never a Villa man, but it choked me up a little more than once during the day, more than I can say many lost Villa men have done for me. It's intensely sad that a man so loved by seemingly all of British football is gone well before his time.

Very much this. "So here we are" is genius. How you go from that to TENDERONI , I'll never know (albeit as a solo artist). Agreed. Silent Alarm is pretty much the album of my late teen years and it's so, so so **** good. They fell into the trap of being a band with talent who had a sound, and then deciding that being talented means you have to evolve your sound and also means you have to become full of yourself. It still surprises me that people actually like A Weekend in the City, which I find to be one of the most disappointing albums ever. I actually mildly prefer their third album totally because whilst it has some utter shit on it, it's also got a few decent tracks. Kele's solo stuff is utter trash, I listened to the lead single and decided that that was that. They were so good even the remix album of Silent Alarm is **** superb - the being imo the pinacle, just an great song turned into a great chilled track.

Also encountered the headless horseman last night Great game.

I've not had a companion, bar a couple forced on me by missions. I don't really want one - Stone of Steed means I don't really need a pack mule, and my style of sneaking and archery before meleeing it up I don't think lends itself to having some shonky AI following me about. No, I'll wander into the distance alone...

HAs anyone else found that it's abit of a chore going dragon hunting? I dunno if it's the stage of the main quest I stopped at (left off going to Riverwood to investigate a room I was directed to by a note in a dungeon), but going out specifically to find them is a pain in the arse. I've only found 2 in the wild! EDIT - And to briefly stray offtopic again, listeners to the Bombcast will hear even more of why Patrick is a dick as in that he acknolwedges his MGS5 **** up by just having a pop at the mag he stole from and whinging a little. **** dick, **** off.

Was on Simon Mayo Saturday night shitfest Confessions as a kid. They used to have a section where schoolkids would confess to little things they'd done. They picked our school for one run of shows and my class, got filmed but never actually watched the show >_>. I was also filmed with a bunch of mates waiting around at my mates college while A-Level results were being handed out about...4 years ago. My mate had left the 6th form we'd all gone to and had ended up having to redo a year, so was a year behind us all. When he went to pick up his results we went along for moral support and lo and behold that just happened to be the college Midlands Today had turned up at. We were ridiculously easy to spot as we were the only group of lads seemingly in a happy mood while all around us was nervousness and tears . Been on numerous local BBC Wales broadcasts though couldn't tell you specifics. They had a studio on Aber uni campus and every couple of weeks you'd run into a camera crew filming the main high street in Aber for shots for some news report or other. Straying briefly outside TV I've also been interviewed by the BBC Asian Network :oops:

I've been eying the Black Friday deals like a hawk this week. So far I've never quite been able to justify the purchase though, even when it's something I'm kinda interested in and at a great price. Also, I always say this with regards Amazon... but I still can't get over how pretty much the retail website on the net is still such a mess.

Ah. To be fair I don't like much of the comedy/quirky simile stuff some people put in their writing, thankfully it doesn't come up much. The problem with any numerical ranking for anything is it's all pretty meaningless. What is the difference between an 8/10 for graphics and a 9, really? Is 5/10 average, or is 6 or 7/10 average? At the end of the day the number doesn't really let you know much, beyond 'Roundly it's shit/bad/alright/decent/good/great/superb', which ultimately isn't all that useful.

Ah, we're on the same page. Your list for a good review read like you just wanted the facts of the matter with no subjectivity.

I still think that was done intentionally. If that annoys you, you should try working in a shop where people are entirely likely to ask you for 'L.A. Newer', 'L.A. Neuer' or 'L.A. Nor'. See also: Deus Ex - 'Dire Sex' 'Dyas Sex' 'Deuce Ex' 'Das Ex' Grand Theft Auto IV, or GTA4 - GTA Eye Vee Anywho, its that time of year again so... **** John Lewis ad. Piss me off no end. That this one supposedly makes people cry garners it extra ire.

...Satanist.

Rev's quote is rather more about games journalism from the point of view of news. Reviews are a different thing, although they have their own issues. A review that just laid out the facts, while informative, would not be a good read.

At it's worst, which most of it is, it is just that (to take an example from GB, Navarro on games news is solely press release sarc). It is possible to have good games journalism though - a copy of EDGE can prove that. Klepek seems to have decided that good games journalism is putting out articles on things I'm sure only he's got because no-one else in the industry really cares, occasional 'news-opinion/reaction' pieces which usually have some antagonistic or overreactive element, and the odd straight news piece, all written in this incredibly hackneyed faux intellectual upstanding voice. His script actually annoys me to read, it's supposed to be more professional than the others but it's got no soul at all, it's the same style everyone who thinks they need this formal almost academic tone develops when they need to write something to impress. Gaming journalism doesn't necessarily need to be so dryly written to be taken seriously. That he's also a dick just puts the tinhat on my dislike of him. Watching the MGS HD collection QL, **** me... he comes out with some pearlers. 'This game shouldn't exist'. Call yourself an upstanding journalist, that's playground level mate.

Just to pick this up again from a while back, I have to admit to chuckling and then thinking 'And thats just part of why he's a clearing in the woods' with Patrick's little 'apology' for shamelessly doing something he was employed at GB, from what I can remember, to rid the site of, thats ended up making him look stupid. The 'MGS5! OPMUK this month exclusive!' story that he simply hoovered up and regurgitated like the sites that are derided like Kotaku would do, when he's games journalist extraordinaire. It's backfired - turns out OPM had been bending the truth to get sales and hype for the mag, and he's been caught with his pants down by just reposting it with no fact checking. But rather than take it on the chin and admit it's his fault for just swallowing it, he just has a bit of a hissy fit and dig at the mag he pinched the story from. He's blamed them for him being a dick. Sure, OPM shouldn't be doing that... but he's employed to make the sites standing for journalism and as a news source improve, the previous incumbent being derided for doing exactly what he's done, it's his fault he got lazy. Sorry for the OT... Skyrim's still class.

My problem with Twilight Princess's looks wasn't to say it wasn't a good looking game - on a purely technical level the game, taking into account the power behind it, were fine enough for early Wii/late GC. It was more the design of it. The pure 'Zelda' sections were incredibly run of the mill, there was no real character to the designs (Skyward Sword somewhat suffers from this too from what I've seen), it was exactly what you'd get if you just decided that what you needed to do was Ocarina of Time with better fidelity. And then in the Twilight sections, the enemy design and so on was again pretty uninspired imo and at times downright ugly. Of course that is all just subjective. As for Majora's Mask... I liked that it was a different take on the series, its one of the most outlandish departures for the series and was delightfully weird and smart. It was still Zelda... but it was a different Zelda. And I really liked it.

Been investigating a legend of something or other to do with some legendary mage, which has sent me on a 2 dungeon quests so far and would have sent me to a third if the place wasn't locked, which have been good fun. Daedric arrows ftw btw . I'll make notes of stats later, I suspect I'm stupidly unbalanced but it's working out for me largely.

IIRC my dad was supposed to be in one of the pubs that night with a mate, but they decided against it last minute.

Backs to the wall lads!

Empire Sounds... interesting. Increasingly sounds like they're going to adapt and pinch bits of Knightfall to me...

3-0, Spurs to barely break a sweat. I foresee 'backs against the wall lads!' from the first whistle to the last.

A finished Wind Waker would be a great game. The one they released had a charm that was superb, and while the cel shading never wow-ed me it stands up remarkably well (seriously, look up the shots of it running in the Dolphin emulator, it genuinely looks good to this day), but it's final act takes the shine off it. They had intended to have a couple more dungeons in the game at the end but ended up cutting them and shoving in the terrible Triforce quest instead, which was such a bad idea even then I'm surprised they did it. Twilight Princess is blessed with some of the best dungeons of the entire series. But it's gimmick was terrible and it had a pretty iffy halfway house incarnation of Nintendo's traditional dual world, the Wii controls felt tacked on and were the opening bell for 5 years of waggle, and it somehow managed to have it's art direction be at once uninspired in it's traditional Zelda stylings, and bizarrely ugly for the Twilight sections. Ocarina of Time is still the one for me, swiftly followed by Links Awakening and Majora's Mask.

Well bearing in mind a redesign hasn't been announced yet () I'd have to guess. My bet would be mid-2012, and I'd expect at the very least it would be a cosmetic go over with better battery life. I would not be surprised if the extra stick featured however, since that add-on will get developers behind it and as an add-on alone its utterly absurd. If thats added I expect the whole machine to get a little bigger which'll help with the battery too. All guesswork, but based on Ninty's track record I'll be surprised if next year doesn't see a revamp.