It's been a while coming, but I have decided to finally pack my bags at Gamespot and take my reviews and opinions elsewhere.

There's nothing left at Gamespot now but sour old memories, raging fanboys and retarded reviews. After the disgraceful FEAR2 and Halo Wars reviews I have seen published on this website of late, nothing about the Games site seems credible any more. The moderation is terrible, you get moderated for trying to keep the peace, while raging/cussing loonies go around screaming at anyone who isn't in agreement with them. A lot of Gamespot's news articles are very poorly written, with bias written all over in the style.

It's a shame because Gamespot used to be one of the best Games sites around. Now it's just a cess pit of idiots.

So, i am never returning here ever again and I am migrating here: www.giantbomb.com

This website is headed by former Gamespot employees and favourites such as Jeff Gerstman and Brad Shoemaker. Just in case any of you were unaware, Jeff was fired in the Kane & Lynch debacle, where he reviewed the game poorly (because it truely is terrible), but was fired because the review score wasn't high enough. It was disgusting. Several GS people left voluntarily in his wake and formed this new games website.

Make it grow! Signing up is easy, and the reviews and gamers who visit seem pretty awesome, it's also well moderated.

Adios Gamespot, you were great once. Alas though, no more.

Join the Folding@Home effort today! Sponsored by Stanford University in California, the Folding@home client is a downloadable piece of software which sits in your taskbar and runs quietly in the background. It utilises the spare CPU clocks your computer isn't using to do millions of calculations per minute working out how protein chains fold together. A fundamental part of medical science, yet something that needs either a super-computer of 40 years in the future, or millions of participant home users, to achieve breakthroughs in.

I joined this effort because I believe in the work put into finding cures for diseases, not just for humans but animals as well. If you think your computer sits around idle but turned on frequently enough, or see this project as important, then i'd really recommend looking it up on Google. You'll need the 6.2 version client for CPUs. There are some new GPU projects opening up, but i can't seem to find one that works on my systems, they i presume are betas still.

If you like, join the Group i'm part of: 60091

You enter that when the program first loads up. We are the FurAffinity team and we've currently got almost 200 members We'd welcome more ^^

Cheers all, just thought i'd share this with yeh.

Due to my position on a Currys.Digital locally, while i wait for my results and Uni replies, i was able to get the following system at a truely bargain price:

Packard Bell iMedia
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2Ghz per core.
2Gb DDR2-533 memory
Geforce 8400GS 256Mb Graphics Card (with plans for an upgrade to a 9600GT in October)
250Gb Hard Drive
24bit Realtek HD 5.1 Surround Sound Card
DVD-RW X18 QuietDrive

All for £275, that's $500 for the Americans among you.

All in all, a good deal. Graphics Card is a little on the weak side, but nothing a simple and easy upgrade when my Birthday comes around won't fix.

It plays everything i currently own fine, the 9600GT will be in preparation for games such as Fallout 3 and Spore.

Right then. Since a certain member, no names given, of my contacts list deemed it necessary to savage my previous blog with spittle and "disapproval", let's try again shall we, I will not have arguements in my blog. I wouldn't want anyone wetting themselves again, so let's try something a little more...tactful perhaps.

Righty, well i'm in the planning stages of getting a new PC, so i guess i could talk about that a little. I've been stuck with an aging Laptop for a while now, it's no longer capable of playing new games because the graphics chip is outdated and only supports up to SM2.0 of DX9. Time for a DX10 spash out! My new base unit machine will be a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop model. Here's a link to some images and stuff: http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

I'm not overly fussed by snazzy cases, since they often sit under the table anyway, but this one looks stylish at least i think.

The specs of the machine I plan to get are as follows:

Intel Core 2 E4600 2.4Ghz X 2
2Gb DDR2 Memory
250+ GB Hard Drive, SATA 7200RPM
A seperate graphics card, either a 512Mb 8600GT, or a 512Mb 9600GT. Whichever will be the best deal at the time i get this together.

So i'll be back with the PC-Gaming crew soon enough XD

In other news, what exactly IS happening about a new Starfox game for the Wii? I keep hearing that it's rumoured to be coming up in this year's E3, is that right? If so, the prospects of me getting a Wii for myself increase quite a bit indeed.

I still intend to get up to scratch by picking up a Gamecube one of these days. I found one for £17 including a game in Gamestation the other day, i might think about that actually. I wish to play the Starfox games (especially Adventures) definitely. Any other recommendations? List them here please guys, since i'm not much of a Ninty gamer Haven't been since the height of the Pokemon GameBoy era XD

Here in Bournemouth, south coast of England, we're getting the UK's first "Gaming Lounge". It'll be a new building, decked out specifically for leasure and group enjoyment. There'll be annual membership fees, as well as hourly usage fees. Currently, it looks quite nice i think: http://www.bournemouthconferences.co.uk/Gaming_Lounge

My only problem with it is that it'll have PS3s only. But, despite all my dislike for the PS platform and the way Sony treats it's customers in Europe (appaulingly), i may give it a go one day, just because it's the first over here. Maybe if that does well, we'll get a similar place for 360 gamers? You never know ^^ There used to be a PC Gaming lounge in Bournemouth, but that got shut down because it just became a place for the employee's friends to hang out for free, meaning paying customers weren't getting in. It flopped. Shame really, annoying.

Well that just about raps up my blog then. I've been absolutely as neutral as i could be in this blog, it's all placid and my own opinion/situation. If anyone has a problem with that still, then they can go f*** themselves XD

It seems the EU really are struggling with their finances these days. After the recent debacle of Microsoft getting fined something in the region of $200 Million for "including Windows Media Player in Windows" (I kid you not...), it seems they've already spent all that money on partying, and need a new large corp. to create a scapegoat of.

Nintendo are about to be fined over $200 Million for "price fixing". Now, I don't know how much water the EU's arguement holds, but it certainly seems as if Nintendo going to try and kick the EU off their backs, just as MS tried to. Apparently Nintendo reps claim "The fine is unfair and unlawfully calculated". Sounds about right for the EU to be honest.

Man, am I glad the UK hasn't joined with the EU -_-

Thoughts and contributions people?

Ok, a slightly different kinda blog for me here guys, a collective review blog GS don't seem to review DLC packs, so i thought i'd get an idea of what everyone thought about the exciting new map pack straight from the Bungie labs Here's my impression of them having experianced them all to a reasonable degree.

Blackout: Yes i like this map. I found it a joy that they brought this map to Halo 3, since i never played Halo 2 MP much and didn't get to experiance this map. The artwork is incredible and the map design admirable. I certainly think this alone was worth the map pack for. Here, i think, they were uber-perfecting an already near-perfect Halo style map. So 9.5/10

Avalanche: The successor to Sidewinder. Again, i'm really glad they put this map in. It's now far more spacious than the Halo 1 version, it's got some excellent new design perks and certain makes for a fantastic team sniper map. The general construction and scale is good, great also for fun in Forge because of it's wide open spaces. Me and two friends of mine made a huge vehicle ramp 9/10

Ghost Town: My least favourite out of the pack, however is still a good playing field and extremely interesting detail to the map's lush environment. An all-rounder really, there's no specific use this map could have, sniping, melee, shotguns, rockets, anything you like. It's got fortress-like buildings, or that's what they near-enough become in a large team based game. Sometimes the layout can be confusing for new users of the map, but after several plays on it, you get use to it's highly complex grid of walkways and corridors. Another very good effort by Bungie 8.5/10

Upgrade to Forge: A great extra! Now you can impliment visual special effects into the game as well as some other useful features added to the library, such as ramps and watchtowers. New decals have been added in Avalanche, to the vehicles and items in game.

If everyone could give a little comment and score about their favourite new maps and what they think about the new updated forge, then post post post

Hello everyone, welcome to my next blog. This time, i will be going into a recent controversy: The first time Sony has EVER won a format war! Why does nobody look extatic about that? Oh yea....read on....

Putting aside my indifference to HD-DVD and Blu-ray, this gamer believes an era of expensive movies is yet to come. Letting a heavily privatised, heavily commercialised, heavily control-hungry company control how much we pay per movie disk, is a very VERY bad idea. HD-DVD was in the realms of open-source-media, in other words it wasn't really owned by anyone as such, just Toshiba had trumpeted it and tried so sell it...however i don't like Toshiba any more than Sony to be truthful. However, HD-DVD's would have been a cheaper format than Blu-rays by FAR. Following in it's father's footsteps, HD-DVDs would have come down in price with demand, ensuring prices less than £10 per movie eventually. However, i doubt the same can be said for Sony i'm afraid.

While i refuse to start having a rant against Sony's other media, especially their Gaming and Entertainment divisions, i do not see the PS3 as a viable resolution for watching movies in the future. Why, you ask? Well because the prices of 3rd Party Blu-ray devices will by far be lower, if not already are. That's the end of that little slice.

My point here is that Sony is a company looking to exploit customer resources, they aren't, in short, very "kind" to customers. They expected many PS2 owners to fork out for console repairs, which were often required due to the high level of unreliability of the platform, especially in it's early days. They often bodge-job components, such as the recent 11Million Laptop battery recall because Sony managed to allow some of them to be contaminated with Iron Filings. They fail to appreciate the European markets whatsoever, which surprises me more so because one of the CEOs is Welsh... leaving us for 5 months before releasing the PS3, and even then, releasing it as a crippled version of the full thing. Furthermore, later stripping out components from the console and making others cheaper versions of the components, then claiming the new price is a "price drop" on the same console...when it's just a cheaper version in fact. Then again, i expect they realise many of their devout fans won't care, and rather will sit in a couch staring at the black grill-like form wondering "I wonder what this thing does".

It's just the sheer gullability of people, us, the public, these days that REALLY gets on my nerves. Is this really THE company we want in charge of an area of the media we treasure and love so much? Second to gaming? I think not, myself, i speak for all of us who just want an easier, cheaper, competitive friendly ride.

God bless MS with their Digital Movie Downloads on the Xbox 360. Because it looks like that's where i'll be headed for my movie thrills from now on.

*mutters about £30 per movie, then shuts the door behind him*

Hey everyone,

Me and a friend of mine have decided to start up a new Union dedicated to 360 and PC gamers, or people who play both like me I'm looking to help my friend, Starfox Elite, by finding out if anyone out there would like to be a co-founder, and then after they're filled up, charter members and get the Union on it's feet?

You're welcome to come in, even if you're a casual gamer. We'll gladly accept casual gaming, and single-platform-only gaming, but as long as it's 360 or PC. Sorry Nintendo and Sony people, this Union is not designed for you :/

The idea of the Union will be for a place where MS platform gamers can go to lounge around and discuss meeting for clan/friend tournaments and online Multiplayer, as well as discussing general topics about the platforms.

If anyone would like to join, simply say so here in the comments, and i will send you an invite

Thanks for taking an interest guys,

-Tiger

Wishing you all have a great 2008! Enjoy it and have fun in the celebrations

I'd start to consider buying one myself if it i) Weren't for the shortages and ii) Weren't for the fact that the Wii has no games with enough depth and maturity for me to buy.

Sure Mario-Milking is great, i mean, who doesn't want to play football with mario? Get paper cuts with mario? Run tracks against Sonic...with mario?.....

I am of course being facetious, but i'm playing games such as Mass Effect on my 360. I don't want games LIKE Mass Effect on the Wii, otherwise i wouldn't need a Wii. But i want games with the same sorta quality and sophistication that Microsoft's platform has many of on offer.

Please Nintendo. A Starfox game? PLEASE!??!

What do you guys think, any of you have a Wii and have anything to say?

Oh and, like with my 360 and PC Hardware, i'd wait for a price cut before i buy it

Ok, different kinda blog from me this time:

Anyone who plays any of the following games online:

-Halo PC
-Halo 2 PC
-Halo 3 Xbox 360
-Counter Strike: Source
-HL2: Deathmatch
-UT2004
-UT3
-Homeworld 2

And wishes to possibly have a match with me, we could organise good times and stuff, could you let me know via PM? This next Xmas period i wouldn't mind doing a bit more online MP than i have been recently.

I've gotta get hold of a Xbox Live subscription, but i will do soon so don't worry about that. So for Halo 3 on Live, it's possible really from next week onwards. Everything else is good to go Keep in mind that i live in England, so if you're from Canada/USA or even Australia/New Zealand, then i'll be in a different timezone, so we'll have to work around that.

Hope some of you guys can join me for some gaming this Xmas!

Finally an RPG which truely lives up to every thead of expectation. That RPG is immense in size. That RPG has an incredibly ambitious design. That RPG is a meld of different styles that work together. That RPG redefines epic-gaming quality.

Man calls it the biggest leap in technology humanity has ever faced.

The cultures of the galaxy call it...

Mass Effect.

Nothing i have played before quite captures the quality of a blockbuster film, melds that in with a storyline written as the brain-child of Drew Karpyshyn, a NYT Bestseller Sci-Fi author, along with some of the best role playing elements ever developed by a developer who've won so many RPG GOTY awards now, i've lost count.

Do not be fooled into thinking i will fanboy and drool constantly over this game, for it does have the odd little quirk i'm not happy with. However, compared to the "celestial sea of awesomeness" these "tiny blemishes" are lost in space. The autosave function of the game is mildly screwed, in that it simply doesn't save often enough.

The characterisation in this game is absolutely the best i've ever seen, it's perfect. Each character is voice-acted by a discrete and talented actor, they didn't hire any noobs for this job. You lose yourself in conversations, also aided by the incredibly smooth-talking conversation system, where you get up to 6 options and can choose before the other character is done talking. The morality of each option is not clear cut, but simply more, or less "by the book".

No spoilers here, but the storyline is everything you could hope for. It's of decent length, i've been playing for 25hours total time now, stuck pretty close to the main-quest. I'm thinking i'll easily be able to work over 50 hours from this game, i'm not finished with the storyline yet either, by far.

Visuals are some of the best i've ever seen at ALL, and certainly THE best i've seen for the 360 console, they're incredibly sharp and slick.

Don't have any question in your mind that this game isn't worth getting, it'll have something for almost anyone. It's not perfect, but damn! It's about as close as you're gunna get realistically.

Andy out.

There is something for absolutely everyone, coming out this season in the games market. I cannot think of anyone who might be missing out on their choice of game over the coming winter. Firstly, we've just had a barrage of great games for PC and 360. The Orange Box, Bioshock, World in Conflict,Halo 3 and PGR4 come to mind. But i'm not going to fanboy on about the PC and 360 for once, i'm going to look at the wider perspective. I'm 18 now you see, so maturity has to come around one of these days. Damn what a spoilt fun getting older is -_-.

Anyway, the Nintendo Wii is going from strength to strength, although personally i wouldn't mind seeing a new Starfox game. I know someone else around here who feels the same exactly A new Starfox game would certainly entice me to perhaps invest in a Wii this christmas. But alas, no such luck. Can only keep hoping. The endless barrage of Mario and Zelda games has to let up one of these days, and a dawn of fresh, new, invigorating titles will take the stand. Wait, i'm almost insulting people again aren't I? I really must stop doing that XD Then you've got the DS, with it's lineup looking good, and just recently a version of Spore announced to be released on it, which is very good. I'm still waiting for that B&W DS game to be either confirmed or cancelled after all this time. Again...no such luck.

The PS3 and PSP. Ok i'll say it straight: No. No i do not know much about the lineup for these two platforms. No i'm not particularly interested in these two platforms. Why you ask? Why am i going against my word and betraying those of you who care about the platforms, sounding like a "fanboy"? Well to be honest, you can't be a fanboy of both Nintendo, Microsoft and the PC all at the same time, i accept those platforms. Forgive my slightly off-tone here, but as far as I can hear, it's all doom and gloom for Sony right new. The PS3 September sales were awful. The games department is in two-fold loses. The PSP had a period of very bad sales, but has now pulled up a bit with the PSP lite. Sony just sold a whole bundle of Cell processors back to Toshiba, who themselves support HDDVD over bluray, so quite the business partner pick there. UT3, one of the biggest game launches expected for the PS3 platform...delays until further notice due to technical issues in getting it to run properly. Again, i'm sorry for sounding so biased...well, am i? Everything i just said is true, i've heard it over the GS news. I've never been a Sony fan, but until recently i've had no reason to hate them. Until now. My Laptop battery is failing, it keeps overheating from time to time, lifespan down to about 90 minutes per charge as well. Dare i mention who it's made by? Well i'm sure anyone who's anyone has heard of the issues of late with Sony + Laptop batteries, so this is where i cut off. While i agree that the price-cut of the PS3 was timely, i've also heard that it's put Sony into multi-million if not billion $ debts because of that. The new price of the £300 PS3 "Lite" 40Gb edition is more reasonable, however when put up against the far superior, backwards compatibility proficient, 120Gb 360 Elite...need i say more? The £350 tag on the 60Gb version is much better. But what's this? That version is ending production for European gamers? Well there's another nice move to befriending this continent's gamers, further reclaiming market-share lost. One thing that stands as a marvel to me, and everyone else apparently, is the incredible success of the PS2, which just reached the 120Million sales mark. I have personal reservations about the mindless purchasing of an overated console on this one, but nevertheless, that is a very strong feat, one i have to say needs applauding.

The world is the gaming industry's oyster. May this turn out into one of the best gaming seasons of all time! Maybe if Sony get's is arse in gear and stops trying to sue cross-nation online retailers of their own products, it might be able to contribute next year as well!

Ok well the 360 has been with me now for about a Month, so i'll do a verdict based on my expecations as a PC Gamer. Naturally, they're pretty high

Ok so first things first, i'll say what I got for it now and how it's set up. I've got it on a standard PAL Tv at 60hz. That's connected with the standard Microsoft cable that came in the box. I also have a Delux Quality Gold-plated HD cable for the HDTV we have in the lounge, so i can play it on there as well if i like sometimes. I have a single Wired controller, as that came in the Core package, but i'm gunna get a second controller soon for co-op etc gaming. I have a 64Mb memory card and no Hard Drive. I use DJ-style headphones. The games i have now are: Halo 3, PGR3 and GRAW.

Ok so the visual quality i'll start there. It's impressive. I'd say at current, it's on par with the mostly DX9 era games out for PC, in some cases it's marginally better. On the whole though, the visuals are extremely nice. Especially with Halo 3, they're just glorious on that game. In PAL (760x512) -60hz, it looks pretty nice actually. The subtle Anti-Aliasing helps to smooth off edges without causing screen blur at all, so it looks crisp even on there. It's only, however, when i plug it onto the 26" HDTV, when the visual aspect really does look superb. At 1280x720p, it's stunning. That's about the same native resolution of my Laptop's screen, so i'm used to it with games and stuff. Halo 3 looks especially nice as well.

Onwards and forwards, the sound. This aspect is very very nice. The HD cable i have also comes with a optical audio cable slot. So if i wanted, and we got a sounds system that used that connection type, i could get crystal clear sound from my 360. I'm pretty sure none of the other consoles can do that, but correct me if i'm wrong. Otherwise, the sound is generally clear, stutter free, bassy and atmospheric. Everything i could want.

The controls. The 360 controller is the most comfy controller i have ever handled by a long, long way. It's smooth rounded curves, ergonomic design and nice clean texture feel, is a great design in all. The analogue sticks feel nice with the high quality rubber, the buttons have good feedback and lots of travel, the weighting is just right and the size too. Actually, it's also one of the best controllers you can get for the PC and all, ratings wise. I'll always prefer Mouse and Keyboard, but the 360 controller i make a concession to the rule that all controllers, including the Wii's, are **** compared to M&K. The 360 controller, it's ok!

The system itself. I actually like the curved design. It doesn't look at all out of place, when put anywhere. Whether verticle, horizontal, under a TV, on top of a Tv, next to the TV, on a desk, below the desk, basically anywhere it can look good. And one of my favourite points? Cusomisable apply-on textures for the console, as well as interchangable Faceplates. Very nice that, unique to the 360 as well. The console runs with a moderate hum, the air coming out the back is, at most, warm. It's never hot, it seems the two cooling fans at the back of the 360 do an adequate job of cooling it. Looking at it using my GCSE Tech skills, the air ventilation design is very well done. Holes placed in as many places as possible, without the console's shell looking like swiss cheese, allow for the air to be able to get to most areas inside the console.

Yes yes yes, i know, the RRoD might prove the above statements wrong. However, not necessarily. Ok in some cases, the 360 may just screw up and die no matter what. But every console has that, in all history. But most of the time, it's down to idiots covering it up with things, not giving it adequate air-flow or putting the console in a place where the air vents are blocked, which leads to the ultimate demise. As a saturday job while i'm a student at college in England, i work in an electricalhardware store in a town near me. We sell a lot of consoles, especially 360s and Wiis. Of late, a couple of 360s have been coming back with RRoD's. Out of the 100 or so we've sold since the 360s launch, about 5 have been returned in total. Now one of those cases, the 360 had only just been bought, but it screwed so that's fair enough. But in the other 4 cases, the 360 was battered, cracked, greased and scratched. I dunno about u guys, but if i were the owner i would have taken much better care of it. Like i am now, my 360 is treated very well, it's one of the lucky ones, it got a GOOD owner... But these ones, it's so understandable WHY they've screwed up. The owners obviously maltreat the product. We get that with other products too. So as far as i'm aware, yes there is a RRoD problem. But don't forget, MS has sorted that now. 3 years warentee, on-phone-callout repair service free of charge in the event of a RRoD. That's decent service. But also, people treating their 360 like a toy, is causing some of the problems i believe. The 360 is not a toy, it's a powerful tri-core, 500Mhz ATI GPU beast, which needs respect from it's users, not pudgy hands tearing it apart.

The additional functionality, like Live, wireless networking, ability to connect to other PCs directly to access their media, the music player, the DVD playback and being able to play music from any USB device, which can be played over your games too if you prefer. It's all so well thought out and considered for anyone, from casual gamers, to serious ones.

So there we have it. Things i'd like different now...hmm there has to be something...

Slightly less noisey? That doesn't even bother me that much though. Disk drive could definitely be quieter though. Umm....guh. That's about all i can think of, seriously, less noise.

As far as i'm concerned, that makes it a great console. Now i'm into it, i hope Microsoft continue with the Console market, they're doing well and the console is great fun to use.

After much mmm-ing and ahh-ing, i finally just said "to hell with decision making" and got the bloody thing I got the following package:

Xbox 360 Core system - Brand new
2 Games (PGR 3 and GRAW) - Preowned
A 64Mb Memory card (pleanty enough for me) - Preowned
and A Media Remote for DVDs, Music and turning it on remotelyetc

So a mixture really of my original plan, to get it all preowned, along with some advice, to get it new. I got the Console new because, as someone advised, i know exactly how it's been treated, noone has mauled it in the past, then traded it into the Gamestation store. The games are both preowned, i got the two of them for £20, in a bargain deal. Neither have any chips or scratches, they may as well be brand new. I knew both got around ~90% so they'd be good starter titles to get. The 64Mb memory card will be pleanty for me, it'll allow me to keep a large quantity of games stored, more than i'll get no doubt. The Media Remote was really just a case of "Oh it's only £3.50, may as well just get it". Both the Core system and the Remote i got from the store where i work on Saturdays, so got my staff discount. Which meant the Core system came to only £162, far cheaper than even a Wii here in England. Brilliant value, perfect timing, just after MS's price drop.

So far the gaming experiance has been extremely impressive. The visuals look great, even on a standard definition TV, thanks to the ATI graphics chip's high quality Anti-Aliasing. Playing DVDs back looks and sounds fantastic. The ability to plug in a USB drive and play my own music while in-game is brilliant, love that. Also being able to set up a slideshow of pictures is nice, just as something to leave rolling while the 360 is unattended, all my best moments in the games etc. Loading times and framerates are just fantastic, in PGR 3 it's stated the game NEVER drops below 30fps, which is great and you can tell. Ghost Recon is a great tactical shooter. One i previously missed out on, because the PC version was terrible in all respects, a bad port.

So there we go. This is, sadly enough i suppose, the first games console i have EVER bought. My parents never wanted to buy me one, it's only now i'm well paid in various jobs etc that i can just go out and buy these things. I'm happy i have, i think it's a swell console to start with, secondly the games about to come out are fantastic: Halo 3 (must...have...NOW), Mass Effect and next year, UT3 are all good ones to start with.

I have the console in a well ventilated room, it doesn't run too hot and i'm very happy with the overall product. Thanks Microsoft for getting me, finally, into console gaming

Hi everyone

Phew, it's been SO LONG since my last blog post i thought i'd update...at 5AM on a Saturday morning of course...

Calling all 360 gamers out there! I'd like to know the wisdom of purchasing a pre-owned 360. Other than hardware specs and knowledge of some of the awesome upcoming games for the 360 due to the awesome E307 from MS, i know nothing about it. I know some things are better bought pre-owned than others. How about a 360? Here's my reasoning, i can buy a Pre-owned 360 console with a Wireless controller and 2 included games in a bundle pack for £150. For the Americans amoung us, that's $300. Abrand new360 here costs £250 ($500) and that's without games. It all sounds so awesome, i'm already saving up, but one quick thing here...is it a good idea? I can get hold of a 360 from where i work for a 10% discount brand new, so it'd be £225 instead of £250 so a much better price. However that doesn't come close to £150 of course and that is a bundle with games, the one from my work place wouldnt have games, and they're expensive for the 360 i know. I'll get to the root of my quiery, will buying a 360 pre-owned be suicidal? All i want is to play a select few games on it, hence not being interested in paying full price or having it crispy new. The Gamestation store offering this deal claims "most pre-owned 360's we sell on are less than 12 months old but it varies. We sell newest system first and check every console with tests etc. Sometimes a 360 has only been opened and used once!" They give me 12 months Warentee on the console, despite the new 3 year warentee from MS for every system, purely because it's pre-owned, so that's annoying for a start. The difference is, i could buy a 360 for £150 andsoon. And i could choose two starter games for it for that price inclusive. If i paid the full £250+£40 a game, that's a different matter, i'll need to save until September, possibly after Halo 3's release, which is BAD for me.

So what do you think? Open opinions are welcome, i just wanna know because if i choose to go ahead with this, i'll be going ahead before Halo 3 comes out. So early to mid September time.

I have considered the other two consoles but i) Half-emptying my Current account on one hand or ii) Be forever jumping up and down on my chair waving a remote control all which ways on the other hand, does not appeal at all. Nope, the 360 is definitely the only console for me.

So why am i such a tard when it comes to consoles? Because i'm a trueblood PCGamer and that will always be the case. Has been since i was 6 and i laid my hands on Microsoft's first ever game, Fury3 :3 I just want a 360 because it's Microsoft and because the games are awesome.

That is all.

I've now done 2 out of the 7 AS exams i need to do this season, so they're well under way.  Just another 3 weeks and i'm free   Other than that only a few things i want to update my blog with

First things first, Halo 2 Vista.  An interesting subject at the moment, by any imagination stretch.  Interesting that Australia got the game first...then US of course...then the UK, i hope.  By the next time i post in this blog i should have the game, so that's fine.  The troubling thing, is that while most people are saying the port job is good, few of them have less than Geforce 7900GS's.....which by the way if you're not very computer literate, is a pretty damn good Graphics card and purely built for gaming with.  I haven't spoken to anyone yet with a modest setup, who can tell me how the game performs with that sort of hardware.  Well, i hope.  Someone was moaning on the forums that their 6 year old system with no upgrades since then, wouldn't run it.  Really not surprised

UT3 is a ghost project!  What happened?  We were all prepping up for the release, then BAM it moves on to "Sept 07" back in March and since then, absolutely no updates.  I'm very confident Epic will produce an amazing game in the end, but christ couldn't they give us ANYTHING to work with until then?  Videos, screenshots, news?  Dammit, there's nothing.  Let's hope they give us something soon, the forum is dead and people are forgetting about it.

Shame that Spore got moved to 2008, but as always, i'm sure they're making it good.  Other game that's happened to is Sins of a Solar Empire, which was looking ready to go, then got moved to 2008.  I suppose Vista has thrown the spanner in the works for most of these devs, since they have to optimise it for that now, that everyone is getting it.

Until the next time *whooshy sound*

Andy

As the title suggests, that is what the UK is now having, day after day of stormy weather.  It's good in a way, as i'm no longer missing anything.  April's average temperature broke records, 22*C on average.  It was also the driest April in the UK for a long time, with only 2 days with rain.  Now, the rain just won't stop.  It's like we had our summer crammed into a month, and now it's back to the gloom...

Following that, is the fact that i have not done an hour of exercise, since i wrote my last blog.  I managed 30 minutes of CV work last week in Games at my college sports centre, before i headed back to the college itself, to do still more work for upcoming exams.  It's now at the stage where my heavy-eating habits paired with no exercise due to the workload, are (probably) making me very unhealthy indeed.  Not caring in the slightest doesn't help matters either, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  Literally, in my case.

This is the first time i've been on in a while now.  Probably the last for a while again now too.  Damn i'll be glad when this craptacular seaon is over and i can get back to playing Halo, exploring Oblivion, pwning in Counter Strike, planning in C&C3, buying music at Virgin Megastores and, yes, Gamespotting!