Chindie

I still place him behind Ronaldo in the 'greatest ever' stakes. Solely because Ronaldo went to clubs in a number of top leagues and was as good everywhere - his record of scoring is remarkably consistent whereever he is, always around 1 in 2, at club after club in league after league, and every league he dominated. Considering he was also regularly injured and out of shape from midway in his career on, that's astonishing. Did it in on the international stage too of course, as well if not better than his club form at times. In my mind the fact that Messi is doing this for a side that is the best in the world by an obscene degree and dominates at a canter holds back my praise. If he can go to another side and do similar, he'd have to be up there in my eyes. But thats unlikely to ever happen. A really good showing for Argentina in a World Cup would bump him up a bit, but the 'other league, other side' thing is what in my mind stays my mind from considering him seriously in the greatest ever stakes. Just.

Occasionally at work you'll get a customer who is a genuinely nice person who is genuinely happy that you're able to help them make an informed decision and you can have a good chat with them and whatnot and they leave with a smile on their face and you feel you've actually been able to help. That cheers me up. If not mostly because we usually end up having John and Jane Crackhead in with their open Fosters cans, meth addled teeth and stolen goods who treat you like shit.

My understanding is it's not as much of a derby as Coventry fans might like it to be.

I think you place too much faith in unflinching loyalty to the COD franchise. People know when a game starts to lose it's quality, the amount of even quite casual gamers I speak to at work that noticed that Black Ops is a weaker title is hard to quantify. I know that copies of Black Ops outnumber the number of traded in copies MW2 ever achieved at our place, and thats been the case since about a month after release, it doesn't appear to have the sticking power it's predecessor had. COD will be surpassed and something will take it's crown, or the FPS mastery of the market will bottom out, or Activision will saturate the market and it will stop selling. Lets not forget they have potentially 3 developers attached to (near) future COD titles. They will churn titles out. And familiarity breeds contempt, of course. Respawn will release something sooner or later of course, and given their record I wouldn't right them off - COD's dominance is their 'fault' after all. and crucially they've got the intellectual rights this time, they call the shots with what happens to their new baby, whatever it may be (not necessarily a shooter). And I think I'm right in saying in every game those fellas have touched has been **** class.

They made a mistake long before that. The issues they had with Infinity Ward stretch back to them seeing the series as a cash cow and starting to take it away from Infinity Ward. They were miffed about it when they first did it, way back after COD 2. Activision knew it was a money spinner and wanted to have an annual release, so brought in other developers. When COD4 blows that into the stratosphere Activision get even more keen to get the annual iteration and Infinity Ward increasingly lost their shit with Activision. MW2, its been argued, is just a big 1 fingered salute to Activision - see the desperation of play down the COD link in the build up etc etc. Theres even rumours of Infinity Ward pushing back DLC for MW2 to let B:BC2 get the jump. Bringing Infinity Ward to heel and **** off the top fellas with no standing on ceremony was just the end game of something Activision started themselves with their business model - get the big franchise, milk it until it's dead, dump it. The problem with that is if you have a developer who gives a shit about what they consider their baby, they're not going to like to see that baby being whored out. Worse when that baby is the biggest property in the medium and guys making it know it.

If Makoun can transfer what he was for Lille that I watched a few times to the Prem, we'll have a proper player. He was basically NRC with genuine talent. His time at Lyon can't have changed him that much surely. I expected him to be more successful than he has been so far simply because I expected his physical game to show itself more easily in the league from word go and the ball playing skillful side to come with familiarity and confidence. Afterall, it's easier in the DM role to shine quickly with good tackling, physique and reading of the game than it is to come into a side and start showing off good incisive passing and connection with other players in play. I hope he can bring his physical game to us in time, because I think it'll send his utility through the roof. I don't see much use for a player who just can first time pass OK 40% of the time and give it away the rest of the time and is a little bit soft.

I borrowed it from work and wasn't overly impressed with it. Call of Duty bubble will be driven into the ground inside 2 years imo. Whereupon Activision will throw it on the shit heap.

More maps coming May 3.

I don't wear a watch and don't feel the need to. But if I did earn enough that I could justify it, I would buy and wear a high end watch. It'd be more as a piece of jewellery than anything though, in reality. A Breitling probably. I sincerely doubt I will ever earn the status or straight up cash that could justify it though.

Has anyone been watching Niall Ferguson's series on Channel 4, Civilisation: Is the West History? It's been a fairly interesting series, sadly I dislike Ferguson and the entire thing could have been further subtitled 'A right wing retrospective on everything that made us kings of the world entirely justifiably' (to say the man is an apologist for empire and Islamophobic is an understatement for example), but when it's reined back the right wing rhetoric it's been a decent enough watch and informative. He posits that the West came to dominate the world because it had 6 'apps' that lead it power lead Western civilisation to the be the best. Today was the last episode, I kinda half heartedly watched it as I was doing other stuff. He went nuts. It was titled Work Ethic but increasingly it became 'Protestantism'. He made a point that implied China's success is inexorably linked to China becoming increasingly Protestant. He then appeared to claim that the West becoming atheist is the bell toll for it's work ethic going down the swanny. And then to top it off, after a series of underhanded off the cuff digs at climate change theory, he suddenly decides that it's got something in it and claims that it's all rather reminiscent of the Book of Revelations! A really, really curious finale to a series that, if questionable, was often a least reasonable.

Sweet Jesus no. Anyway, increasingly I feel we're lumped with Houllier for next season.

Liverpool have bought Jose Enrique, according to Pinocchio

It does have Kate Humble though, that has to count for something in it's favour.

I'm still taken by how diffeent he plays for us to how he had done the couple of times I watched at the end of his Lille career. He shows glimpses of that player but it now looks like he's more of a... well, I dunno how you'd describe what he does really. He passes a bit with some flair, one touch stuff and occasional longer balls with some vision, but then he'll cock it up a bit and look a little lost. He also seems slightly scred to tackle. I hope it's just a side effect of him still finding his way, in the side as well as the league.

Happy for the points, still not good enough imo, though I would reckon that to be one of Houllier's better showings of his tenure. Downing MOTM for me, involved in pretty much everything good we did and everywhere at times, followed closely by Petrov who was back to his best running mdfield and putting the myth about his stamina and his passing well and truly to bed (again).

The 12th man might be a little thick - 'you'll never play for England'? He already has I believe.

My lack of faith in this side is such that even a weakened Geordie side in fairly lacking form I think we'll struggle against.

Always wanted to play that but never did. It was the sequel, or rather follow up, to "Ico", I believe, and Ico was absolutely fantastic. Incredible game, should have had it on my list. You really should track down a copy, it's a game that genuinely could be called an experience I think. It wasn't officially related to Ico in anything other than than the development team and creator, but because of that theres the similarities in style so follow up is a good way to put it. I'm the opposite to you in that I never played Ico. SOTC is a cracker though. It's a game that is like nothing else I've ever played. It has a lonely peacefulness to it as you wander the landscape, and then the daunting scale of the Collossi. Would say more but it wold ruin the experience for anyone else playing it for the first time. Could well be one of a kind though, genuinely. There's a HD remake coming up shortly if you can't track down a PS2 copy, along with Ico.

Yup. We're still a power. 4th largest military budget, UN Security Council seat, NATO's second in command effectively, 6th largest economy, etc etc. Might not be the superpower we once were but we hold a position the vast majority of the states on Earth would envy.

(original version is worth a listen) into Supremely appropriately named band, but I like em.

Looking forward to that album, properly snuck up on me.

PC - it's the best iteration of it for sure. Best graphics, no doubt high res textures out sooner or later, best frame rate. It's been designed to be more playable on more systems so if you could handle Crysis, you'll handle the sequel easy enough. It runs fairly well on even middle of the road computers now. The PS3 version is the runt of the litter, only coming up well in some of the effects. Still a great looking game, but the 360 and PC versions are greater.

Shame. Not sure he'd be alone though.

You could be one of the lucky ones Rob who can consume/indulge in something that apparently gives you death eventually and never see a downside. Like those people you hear about sometimes who smoked 20 a day for 80 years and are still fit as a fiddle. All in the genes. On the crap food note, I had a Wagon Wheel the other day for the first time in years. Fantastic. And today I got given a bag of Cadbury Buttons. So, so good. Also, keema naan. I hate lamb, but in a naan and spiced and minced, yum. A couple of curry houses round here may as well call them burgers, gorgeous.

Said poster lightly mocked someone for reeling off a list of British managers that included David Moyes. It becomes clear poster doesn't actually know what constitutes Britain, and who is 'British', claiming that the Scots aren't British. That could be a fairly academic argument on the nature of national identity and what not of course but no it actually conspires that he just doesn't know what Britain is and who is usually considered British. Much hilarity was had. Something like that anyway . EDIT: for clarity.