Chindie

True I'm not at all sold on 3d, and thats from experiencing most iterations of it on the market currently. It's certainly not unquestionably the future whatsoever. And 3d gaming, which theDon asserted doesn't suck, is really not the case. At the moment it either makes games far harder to play with a lot of queezyness (I recommend trying COD in 3d if you get the chance, it's horrible), or adds only a distracting gimmick that murders framerates. It's currently a useless gimmick. And frankly I'm unsure it'll ever stop being a useless gimmick.

1967 says they don't give a ****.

I don't think clubs really give a shit about the atmosphere, they only care about the money coming in. And I'm not sure in todays times that we're going to see drastically more people standing compared to seating - legislation won't let clubs cram people in and, in my own experience of the Holte end, it's already pretty tightly packed. Even taking the seats out you're not going to get exponentially more people in. You'll get a few more, but not say, double imo, and I'm not sure that the reduced ticket for a standing area is going to be made up for by the number of people in. On the women and family note, any club today will look at an all seater stadium and will think that anyone can sit anywhere - a bloke could take his family to the Holte End just as much as he could the Trinity or one of the family areas. I wouldn't personally take a young kid into the Holte but I've seen people do it. They would, however, not think the same of a standing area (as you yourself say, it'd appeal to the blokes). For the club, that's cutting a potential market. They'll worry about the image too. A standing area has a more hostile look to it in the full swing of a game. As fans, we like that. For a number of people who view the football as a day out rather than as a full on supporter, they're going to dislike that and perceive it with loutishness, holliganism, whatever - however wrong that is they will. And clubs simply want to appeal to the widest audience on the right points of the cost bell curve. So, all seater stadiums where a decent price can be charged across the board and there is widest perceived appeal for filling out the stadium is what they will gun for. Any time clubs do segregate areas of potential seating for other means, it is always where they can charge more for that space, than less imo. The segregated area of the Trinity for example. And to a lesser extent boxes (although that also partly comes down to the potential market of businesses wanting to hire boxes long term bringing in a guarenteed income etc etc). It's a sad state of affairs, but thats football today. We're all customers and walking wallets. Couple that to the redevelopment costs and all the other factors and factions that will be against this and it will not occur.

Indeed.

well he does like a good challenge bt it has to be for right money and 6million a year is probably double or triple GH wages While he does appear to like being paid a lot, he also appears to like taking backwater or lower end jobs for fairly short periods, particularly in recent years national teams. He would have undoubtedly been paid ridiculous sums at Chelsea, and by all accounts was loved and respected by everyone at the club top to bottom, and yet he never, ever said he wanted to stick at it, in fact he was very clear it was a season and no more. I suspect Guus has reasons to stay in certain places, and I reckon they're linked to the money.

The Germans have shown it works for donkeys years, I don't think that's going to change any stance we take. We ourselves showed it works for the majority of organised football spectation has happened. The Premier League doesn't want it, and the clubs will not want it either, so it won't happen. The cost to Prem teams will knock any notion on the head of doing it - they'd need to plough money into planning where these standing areas would be, and then the same again doing it. They'd be curtailing their profits by cutting down the cost per head of people coming in (as people will pay more for a seat than to stand) and the difference in numbers coming through the gate to maximum capacity is unlikely to make up the difference. It would also, the League and clubs would fear, cut down the potential market base - they've gained from the football becoming a more family orientated day, seeing more women and kids than ever. While we have family areas and would still, you're reducing the areas of the stadium, potentially, you could sell to a woman or to a child, or a family, in their view. And it's very unlikely that any minister will have the balls to support this seriously through the system to legislation, because they'd be terrified that any accident that may have been compounded or caused by safe standing (no matter how unlikely that is) is going to see the finger pointed firmly at them for letting it happen again, a point the Sports Minister himself has made quite clear. And the police will grumble because it'll make their job harder, even if simply because it'll be more people to police in a small area, amongst other complaints. It just won't happen. It's sad, as we should have the choice and of course it's rather silly to suggest English people can't stand up safely while ruthless German efficiency means their standing is safe, but it will not happen. In the extremely unlikely event that legislation for safe standing is passed, most clubs will simply ignore it imo.

I would be exceptionally surprised if Hiddink took a job, long term, in a top level good league, any time soon. Cough. And we'd not be setting his heart racing.

Fair play for them trying but it's not going to achieve anything. Theres too much interest in not having standing areas.

Definitely been done (by me), but a corker of a cover. Some of more of their stuff, in their more usual chilled folky very slightly Americana-ish style (they call themselves a 'Post-folk Neo-Baroque' band) - (ignore odd poncey video...)

Final piece of DLC is out next week too.

No worries, enjoy the experiment. You could stumble on the next Reggae Reggae Sauce. Wiggy Wiggy Sauce? According to mySupermarket.co.uk, Tesco still sell a Hellmann's Burger Sauce, but it's not a squeezy bottle. On the condiments note, I bloody love barbeque sauce, the best I've ever had is Cattlemans, which I'm fairly sure is only sold in Waitrose . But it's bloody gorgeous.

I'd try adding some Worcester Sauce as well Wiggy, not a lot, but I bet it makes a difference, for the better.

I think seafood sauce is Marie Rose sauce - it's what you get in a prawn cocktail (oooer on a football site, Roy Keane will be fuming). They're all based off a tomato sauce and mayo base, but the others add other spicings and ingredients to it to mix it up. Marie Rose is literally tomato sauce and mayo. Thousand Island adds in stuff like vinegar, Worcester Sauce, mustard etc to give it a bit more tang, it tends to be quite thin too (it's a salad dressing at the end of the day). EDIT - I'd put money on Hellmans Burger Sauce being similar to these 2 but not exactly the same, but probably along the same lines - tomato sauce, mayo, and some spicier racier ingredients to give it some oomph. You could probably knock up your own a few minutes with some stuff from the cupboard

Thousand Island dressing has other ingredients in it to spice and flavour it, and add to the texture. Marie Rose traditionally is just tomato sauce and mayo.

Tomato sauce and mayonnaise is basically Marie Rose sauce.

3D gaming by and large sucks so far.

I imagine some boots will already be on the ground, special forces aiding targetting and the like. Perhaps some aiding in the direction of the rebels enthusiasm. Eventually I expect a proper force to enter, but under the banner of a UN Peacekeeping Force, in an attempt to stop the place tearing itself apart as it finds it feet once more.

Great film. The Directors Cut is a blu-ray must. I've watched it a couple of times just for the atmosphere, the music and the look.

Playing the original N64 incarnation of OOT still plays well enough, it's quite timeless in that respect, but looks wise it's a complete mess nowadays, blurry blocky and very aged. Just comparing to the tarted up visuals of the 3DS iteration shows how much they've really aged in that respect. A number of N64 games now look dog rough, not gracefully aged at all.

...it's a shite surprise if it is. The surprise will probably be 'We've **** off Episode 3, we're going to just make Half-Life 3 instead... AND IT'S OUT NEXT YEAR!'.

Definite buy. First 10mins or so

We had a bloke trade in a load of pretty much mint old school Zelda games the other day. A Link to the Past SNES and GBA versions, the original and DX versions of Links Awakening, and on a less old school note, Twilight Princess Gamecube edition, which is rare as ****. And original guides for the older lot. OOT is the greatest Zelda game but Majora's Mask should probably get more love. Both have aged horrendously though, like many N64 titles. Links Awakening remains up there too, I enjoyed it more than ALTTP.

McLaren can't work again at a top level in England imo. He will never escape his reputation as useless, the wally with the brolly, in this country now. The moment anything even slightly went wrong the fans would be harking back to memories of 'Stevie G', forlorn looking men in dugouts with umbrellas and his dumb faux Dutch accent, and that would heighten any issues he had and noone would respect him as his reputation became further undermined. He didn't cover himself in glory with Wolfsburg either and 1 success in the Netherlands and a constantly middling performance with Boro would put him firmly at the bottom of any list for me. Still, this is all a rather pointless exercise as, as a number of people knew would happen, Mr Houllier is going nowhere.

It's definitely something you need to try for yourself, everyone seems to react differently to it. The most common complaint seems to be the eye strain, but some people seem to be able to whack the 3d up to full and suffer no effects at all. I set it to about half way and feel comfortable with that, although my eyes still feel a little odd then, it's a really weird sensation and you have to experience it to get it - it feels, for me, like my eyes are trying very hard to constantly focus. There does seem a bit of an accustomisation to it, we've been messing around with the store demo one for about 3 weeks and I've grown more used to using it in that time. You need to use it to see whether the 3d wows you too. I find it a little pointless, adding little to more or less any of the titles I've played. It needs a title that absolutely requires it to work, which it doesn't have yet (and given theres an option to turn the effect entirely off on the system, probably never will). Playing Pilotwings earlier I was struck by how little it really adds to the game, which is strange as it was the title Nintendo seems to have chosen as a kind of a tech demo for the system - it has the scope to show off the depth 3d should add. I find it doesn't, really. Other people looking at the 3d immediately are blown away by it, however. I'd say to anyone who even vaguely might want one in the future, to go into a store and give it a try though, it really is something you have to try to see what you personally make of it. Something that is inescapably crap, and has to be reiterated, is the battery life is shit.

Just found out I'm working the launch of this. Thankfully I don't think it'll fly off the shelves. Anyway... my impressions having used one. It's a solidly built machine and feels like it has some quality. It looks a little bit of a hodge pode design, it'll almost certainly be redesigned as a far sleeker machine. It's got decent power behind it, it's certainly got the potential to have quite impressive titles come out for it. Sadly, the launch lineup doesn't really have anything to absolutely blow the socks off anyway, asides from maybe Street Fighter... which has the trouble of not really being 'for' a handheld. It needs a really top of the line Nintendo game to come out and show what it can really do imo. Zelda may be that title, or the new Mario that's been announced. The top screen is surprisingly good, clear bright and crisp. The 3d is... alright. The first thing I noticed with it is it makes the screen immediately darker and seems to knock the frame rate a bit, even on comparitively simple things like the AR games. The darkening is really disappointing but an offshoot of 3d thats reasonably unavoidable. It does work though. The sweet spot, for me at least, is tiny however, and going off the sweet spot even a little leads to a visual effect of really heavy harsh ghosting that I actually find offputting to even glance at, the first time I caught a look of it off centre I actually had to turn away as it hurt my eyes. I found that glancing between the screens also strains my eyes very quickly and using the 3d for a length of time is quite tiring and gives a weird headache. Some people also seem to become a little queasy having used it. It has the same problems as the DS does for me obviously too. I don't really care for the twin screen thing and touch controls for 99% of things are dumb, and it's never been a particularly ergonomic design. Oh and the battery life on it is **** awful. All in all it's a decent bit of kit but for now the niggles would stay my hand from buying it. The price certainly doesn't help either, it's far too expensive. And the launch lineup is crap. If you're interested in one, I'd say hold off for sure, until about June at least, which should be the release for Zelda: OOT. Ideally wait until it gets the inevitable 'Lite' redux. I also would recommend against buying on the basis of the 3d, but rather on it's merits as a souped up DS.