Tube strike suckage

Due to the collapse of Metronet, possibly the least efficient contractor ever, a 72 hour strike will affect the Tube from tomorrow 6pm BST. It willl last until Thursday 6pm.

It sucks that Londoners would have to pay for this.

Gyakuten Saiban 3

My copy of Gyakuten Saiban 3 DS is due here soon and I can't wait to battle prosecutor Godot. Expect a review sometime next week, maybe. While waiting you can read my thoughts on GS1 and GS2.

With Heroes of Mana, Atlus' sRPG Luminous Arc and a proper DS Harvest Moon Rune Factory, this summer games draught is finally coming to an end (what an awful summer).

UK games draught continues though.

Let me bore you with a rubbish blog post

True story. A friend of ours wanted to get his girlfriend, a close mate of ours, a birthday gift. We suggested a ice blue DS Lite, as she has been wanting one for ages (for more than a year, since laying her eyes on ours). Anyway this guy isn't a gamer. In fact he loathes videogames ('it's for children' is his favourite motto). So Jenni helped by e-mailing him the details required and advising him on the relevant information. Two weeks ago he placed the order from an Asian web company.

Now here is where it got really funny. When he visited her last week he gave her the gift. To his girlfriend's surprise the gift was in fact an old school blue variant DS. He was perplexed at first that his girlfriend did not play it straight away, deciding instead to stow it away. Our friend did not know that he bought the wrong gift, until he calls her a few days later and asked if she has played it yet. Of course she hasn't - she already has a perfectly healthy grey DS for that! He did not notice any difference between the DS Lite and old school DS, only the colour!

Some good news though. Today we went out together to the shops together and he bought a white DS Lite for her. Even better is he may actually keep the blue DS for himself! Imagine that, four player More Brain Training multiplayer FTW!

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Just in case this story hasn't bored you to death yet, here's another videogaming sales tip. HMV has the fairly good Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for £10 and the excellent Final Fantasy XII for a twenty.



Dixons Currys.digital has a special offer on Sony's PSP in rubbish pink for 90 quid. Fine print is you have to buy a PSP game, but I guess you can still consider it a good deal.



Still here? Well here's our Jenga tower, moments before it toppled, at the pub:



And no, it isn't 'in' to wear England underpants.

21st century taboos

Via MSN UK

1. Giving money to beggars
Done that, but before the 21st century. I may throw a 20p coin to a busker or buy a Big Issue from a Big Issue guy. Personally I find charity chuggers more annoying than beggars.

2. Speaking to a stranger on a bus or a train
Apart from exceptional circumstances such as Tube Relief, I have never spoken to anyone on a bus or train. It is the London rule. But outside London I would speak to anyone with a smile on the bus or train. Especially OAPs. They are funny.

3. Holding the door open for a woman
50% of the time I hold the door open for someone, woman or male, unless I hate their appearance, then I would close the door. And run off.

4. Saying that 'Imagine' by John Lennon is rubbish
I think John Lennon and the Beatles are rubbish. As are Paul McCartney, Bono and Bob Geldof. There I said it. David Bowie owns all.

5. Complimenting a friend/relative on their children
I have no idea why this list is even on MSN. Saying a tot is cute is nothing remarkable, me thinks. Perhaps the paedo scare of late is the reason for this taboo.

6. Owning up to drinking full-fat milk
Nothing wrong with that. I never own up to it because people never ask me. This isn't taboo, it is just irrelevant to discuss.

7. Asking for a cup of tea in an upmarket cafe
What is an upmarket cafe? Starbucks, Costa etc. are hardly considered upmarket. But I do know people who goes to Browns and they order tea (no, I have never been there).

8. Being irreverent about Princess Diana
I do not know her. No one from her estate gave me money. Why should I care?

9. Arguing that taxes are good
Taxes are good, to a certain degree. Then you should only tax the rich. Only rich people would argue that taxes are bad.

10. Contesting that England has a third-rate football team
Couldn't care less. But yes, England as a team is third-rate.

What a rubbish list. MSN UK must do better next time.

Mythical fairytale god hates games...

But Londoners definitely loves portable video games.

On National Express coach:
- One adult male with black DS Lite
- One adult male with black PSP (SEGA Mega Drive Collection)

On Tube (in my 45 minutes worth of journey today)
- One adult male with black DS Lite
- One adult male with white DS Lite
- One adult female with white DS Lite
- One adult male with enamel navy DS Lite
- One adult male with white PSP
- Zero Blackberries!

It was great to finally see more adults willing to whip out their DS Lite consoles to play in public. Yay London!

In other news an old insignificant relic known as the Church of England is threatening legal action against Sony Computer Entertainment over Insomniac's PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man. This was because of the inclusion of a Manchester cathedral in the game where men had to battle aliens (sounds pretty cool, maybe I will get a PS3 after all - make that 50% price drop happen SCEE!).

The Beeb has even created four separate articles on this subject (that is an average of TWO a day, for a none-news! Must be a slow news day yesterday), even giving it top bill BBC News website for much of Saturday. I guess they are not interested in 'Maddy' now (thank you German reporter).


Spiffy. Too bad you can't WASD+mouse'd the game.

Now I don't know about you (and my law knowledge is at best consigned to consumer law) but last I heard you can't 'renew' the copyright of old buildings, especially old relics like cathedrals and such (which at 800 years old, probably/should be in the public domain anyway). Now, any lawsuit based on copyrights would likely be thrown out by a sensible judge, so me thinks the CoE is doing this as part of their 'morale crusade' on video games (you don't see churches complaining when films or books use them in fiction) or probably for some kind of money related intent.

I mean they are asking Sony to 'donate' a 'substantial' amount of profit from the game to their coffers (What? Weekly church driven donations isn't enough?). That and a bunch of old irrelevant codgers trying to pin the blame someone else other than themselves because no one here goes to church any more, apart from coffin dodgers. I really can't understand the CoE's logic on how is it Sony's fault that Manchester is riddled with gun crimes. Damn, it really is about money and shifting blames...

Wembley today

Apparently there was some kind of big event today at Wembley. Pictures from the number 83 bus!


LOL!




All those early celebrations for nowt!