Mountain biking snobbery

Got the new WMB mag in the post yesterday. Two guys wrote in to the letter sections regarding the snobbery of some mountain bikers. Six months ago I got back into mountain biking after a decade of inactivity and loving every minute of it, but have seen some attitude by other MTBers that makes me wish I didn't.

Most of the time whenever we bike on a trail, the other MTBers we meet are excellent and friendly people. Nothing pleases me more than having people say hello to you (something Londoners do not do enough). Even while cycling through Lydd, a nice little girl actually said "nice bike" to me. So have I met MTB snobs? Some of those at certain EvansCycles do qualify (I prefer to get kits from indie bike shops - the prices are the same anyway and they actually remember your name), but on actual trails, not all the time.

Yes I have seen snobbish MTBers before. The sort of people whom when you give a friendly hello, would not answer back. They are recogniseable. They ride the latest kit and spend £2000 on hardtails or £5000 on full sussers, but have no idea how to use them. They buy 6 inch full sussers to use in the city for commuting purposes. They would eye your £240 bike and scoff at it. Thankfully, 95% of all MTBers are alright. Even the long haired dude we met on the train from Seaford, with his £1500 Specialized Stumpy, is friendly enough to at least say "you gotta start somewhere".

As for bikes? I am pretty content with my cheap Giant. It's a burly and heavy bike, more suited for all-mountain terrain than cross country or singletrack. Do I wish for a better and lighter bike? Most definitely. When I can stomach up and afford a £1000 hardtail, I will get one. But as a sport, I don't care. Give me back my old cheap and creaky 1993 rigid steel Universal Fusion and I would still be happy.

Technorati tags: MTB Mountain Biking

$600 is the same price as a PS3

People are weird. You know that Apple just announced a new multimedia phone right? It costs US$600, which is expensive for something that already exists on the market, for years now. The reaction from tech blogs has been pretty much the same, it's a bloody great innovation. This despite being a product coming from a company that has zero mobile phone experience.

And what were the reactions when Kaz Hirai announced the price for Sony's mismanaged PS3 during the E306 conference? Total armageddon. I can't remember reading a single positive post by a tech blog that actually praised the price, and yet we are seeing the exact opposite in relations to Apple.

Sony are the hatred (deservedly too) in the entertainment industry right now, and the £425 UK price, battery recalls, unsporting behaviours and lying press departments aren't exactly helping them. But quite why the same standard isn't applied to Apple, I would never understand.

They being the media darling, for this long too, is pretty puzzling. My guess would be great marketing and PR. Get your PR right and Stevie can pass off anything as innovative.

If someone can convince me that $600 is good enough to part for an Apple branded multimedia phone (most likely made by an OEM manufacturer in Taiwan), then I would have no problem throwing away the same amount for a PS3.

Technorati tags: Apple Iphone Sony PS3 PlayStation 3 PR Fanboyism

New Apple phone not a reinvention

Nor is it revolutionary or magical or whatever the BBC calls it.

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I like how Stevie claims that the new Apple mobile phone is a reinvention.

Let's see, touchscreen? Tons of devices has been using that like since forever. Tilting sensor? I believe one company did that on a PDA phone (it's somewhere in T3 from 2-3 years ago), and Sony did implement it on one of their HDD based DAP player, so nothing big here as well. Built-in 2Mp camera? Uhm, isn't 5Mp mobile phone cameras the next big thing? WiFi? Done that. The only thing decent with this, is the 8GB flash memory and IMO that is not enough. And where is the built-in GPS?

Technically it seems to be a marginally better mobile (though no buttons really does mark it down a lot) than most of those currently on the market, not the 'breakthrough' that they seem to imply it is. Still should at least finally kick PalmOne and HTC to finally wake up and start offering real technical updates rather than the usual annual cosmetic redesigns.

Apple fanboys will most likely lap it up anyway and label it an innovation (like they did with the Ipod) and try to justify the reasons in which we no longer need keypads. At least the days of iClones carrying Ipods and Blackberries are over.

Technorati tags: Apple Iphone

Shadow of the Colossus review

I have been meaning to write about this for quite some time since I got it a couple of months ago, but only now had the chance to finally sit down and write what I thought. Before I continue I will probably want to set the tone down for the review. There won't be any mention of Ico (wonderful game, one of the best on the PS2, but I feel SotC has enough qualities to stand out over Ico). This game is awesome. If there is anything next-gen, this is it.

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The premise of Shadow of the Colossus is this: boss fights. Nothing but boss fights after boss fights after boss fights. No in-betweens, no minions and certainly no pansy boss fights that we usually encounter in many video games. These Goliaths, known as the Colossus, are majestic and huge (think bigger than dinosaurs) - representation of would be gods, if they ever walked the earth.

SotC is a bare minimum game and hardly contains a plot. The epic opens with Wander, the clumsy protagonist of the game, riding into an ancient temple, carrying a dead body. Apparently there is only one way to resurrect her, that of the slaying of sixteen giant idols. Your job is to guide the hero across the massive desolate land in search for each of the Colossus.

This may seem daunting, but trust me, each of the boss fights is winnable. It may be challenging to people who never played platforming games riddled with puzzles (think Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider) but here's an example to ponder upon. I found the first Colossi the most difficult, mainly due to me struggling to get used to the control. Only once I finally nailed it I sent the Colossi to its deathbed. After that, by the time I reached the eight Colossi, the game only clocked 3 hours. When I completed the game by save file read 8 hours.

So it isn't too difficult, yet surely at 8 hours, some may correctly question its replay value. It isn't too much of a concern for me (since I got it cheap) but if you count your value based on RPG standard (70-80 hours to complete the main quest, with second ending, like I did on Dragon Quest VIII), then SotC would stack up rather poorly. Even then I would say that SotC is pretty good value, as it offers more than many video games. Which video game offers you the chance to battle 16 gigantic bosses, most of if they appear in other games, would probably be the final boss?

Each Colossus felled by the hero isn't the malevolent creature hell bent on destruction (though they do cause massive damage) that we see in other games. As each of the giant falls there is a moment of silent. No celebrations by the hero. Just necessary killings in order to resurrect a love one.

Agro, the trusted steed who , is easily the more realistic looking and animated videogaming animals I have seen. And I would like to think I know a little about horses (since I have ridden them in the past). You are never in full control of the horse. A nudge on the left analog stick basically tells Agro where you want him to go, not necessary where you will go. Sure the controls may be unpredictable, but we are after all role-playing as the protagonist, not the horse!

Despite being developed on a 6 year old console, the graphics are lush and beautiful, with its washed out blurring effect and lighting bloom. Sure the PS2 could do with a little bit more oomph as frame rates does stutter, but you know what? I didn't care. What was important was despite the limitations of the PS2 hardware, for some reason SotC's landscapes is as real as it gets even compared to newer games on newer hardware and high-end PCs. Sure things will get sharper, more colourful, more glossy etc. but are they any more 'realistic'? Some may argue yes, but I think not necessary. Even then nothing I have seen has yet to match the architectural detail and uniqueness that each Colossus has (my opinion of course).

The soundtrack is even more extraordinary. Music only begins when you enter the realm in which the Colossis live and during battle, even then only subtley. Apart from that the game has no music. Travelling the distance to each of the Colossus's hideout in silence, conveys a sense of solitude for the lonely hero. Surprisingly it works well.

SotC is the living proof that you don't need to spend £300-£400 for next-gen. It isn't perfect, nothing is. But it does break videogaming conventions, and for the better.

10/10

Buy now from Play-Asia or Amazon UK

TV Review: Ugly Betty pilot episode

Just caught the pilot episode of Ugly Betty on Channel 4. I was expecting a similar style to Desperate Housewives than say, Less Than Perfect (which has slight similarities), and true we have a typical US style comedy with bits and blops of mystery and episode specific contents. Who would have known that here we have someone, ugly as she may be, as a modern true heroine? Another highly recommended US comedy on my regular weekly TV viewing list then. Thanks C4.

But no thanks to Davina for ruining what could have been a perfect Big Brother free evening.

Technorati tags: Ugly Betty Channel 4

The best and worst of Channel 4

Channel 4 has always been one of my favourite TV channels and yet they are also one of my least.

It depends what they decide to broadcast. Like yesterday, the third season of Desperate Housewives got ahead (double bill too!), and that is of course great. But Celebrity Big Brother? Not so great. I remember Channel 4 pretty much killed off Nip/Tuck from terrestrial tv due to 'bad ratings', but any bad ratings that were associated with Nip/Tuck was probably because they constantly broadcast the series after the watershed, sometimes way after midnight (usually moved from its slot to accomodate craps like Big Brother and Russel Brand). They probably would never cancel the dreadful Big Brother series especially when 7 million of you lots tuned in to watch yesterday's launch.

Well at least Sky scooped in and stole Lost. One less prolonged crap on the tv, I guess. And The O.C. cancelled? Best news ever!

New Year winter cycling

It was a rare mild day today. The sun was out. The temperature was moderate. The wind wasn't strong. So we headed out to the South Downs Way after a hasty breakfast. It wasn't easy this New Year's ride. Weeks of rain meant that the already difficult enough (in winter) to ride bridleway, is now clogged with grit and wet chalky muck. Picture above taken at the aptly named Waterpit Hill.

Technorati tags: South Downs Way MTB Cycling

Happy New Year

Hi guys, have a Happy New Year. I tried to text some of you before midnight but the network went down. Tried to connect via UMTS and it wouldn't let me. I believe that my mobile only managed to get hold of the o2 network by 2am. No wonder o2 texted me two days ago warning us. Other networks seemed to work fine.

We did not head to Central London for the fireworks as we did last year, so no pixs this time. New Year's resolution for this blog? More cycling posts, more game reviews, more cynical religious topic counter-posts and slightly less political nonsense. Oh, and we hope to be able to finally do a couple of long distance cross country moutain biking like the 100 miles South Downs Way and the 140 miles Coast to Coast cycle route (c2c). Anyway have a great year.