Games

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Apr 282008
 

So by the time I finish writing this post, Grad Theft Auto IV will be on sale. This is probably the first time that I have been genuinely jealous of PS3/XBox 360 owners. 

I have never really been one for putting the time and effort into games to complete them – most of the time I play it until I get stuck and then leave it for months with the optimistic idea that I will come back to it. The only games I have completed in the past few years would be New Super Mario Bros (DS), Star Fox Command (DS) and Half Life 2 (PC). Then why am I annoyed about not being able to play GTAIV? Because you don’t need to finish a GTA to still enjoy it. Admittedly, the reason I didn’t finish San Andreas was because my disk wouldn’t load past half way through the last mission but I still had hours of fun flying the planes and ’9/11-ing it’ (tasteful I know).
This, it would seem, would put me firmly in the newly coined casual gamer category that Nintendo has so successfully captured – but I’m not so sure. I enjoy my DS, I really loved Zelda on it (that one I put down and just never picked it up again. I’m sure I’ll find the time on one of my many long haul flights though), and I often lust after the idea of playing Mario Kart Wii and Super Mario Galaxy. The only problem I have found with Nintendo consoles post SNES is that the third party games tend to be really really awful. Anything made by Miyamoto is going to amazing, that’s obvious, but what the hell is all this Catz, Hamsterz and bloody Pippa Funnell?! Girls want well designed games too.
So this leaves me with only one option. Buy a Wii for the less challenging games that you can pick up for an hour here and there and fork out a whole £300 for a PS3 for the odd big game that comes out. I know, I know, most people would recommend buying a 360 as they are cheaper and there are more games but to those people I would say ‘please go away and die’. Not only is the XBox noisy, unreliable and really, really ugly it also has possibly the worst controller ever created. Any controller that makes me… ME unable to play Street Fighter II is not worth using. I don’t care if it’s expensive or has no games, give me a Playstation 3 any day. Plus, I am already crying inside about not being able to play Wipeout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. 
I really am a Sony Fanboy at heart.
 Posted by at 10:40 pm

Mornings…

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Apr 212008
 

The only reason I look forward to Monday morning is Charlie Brooker’s excellent weekly column on the Guardian website. I could read it in the Sunday paper but I’m high-tech… and I like killing 5 minutes at work whilst pealing crusty chunks out of my sleep deprived eye sockets.

This weeks column got me worried. I have never been good in the mornings.  I do always get up on time for work, but it’s not easy or pretty. I have, however, always been under the impression that once I hit my mid to late twenties I will enjoy getting up early.  I will be up and eating an elaborate breakfast at 8am on a Saturday morning whilst planning the days activities.
Well, it seems this will never happen as I believe I see more of my morning thoughts and feelings in our friend Charlie’s little rant than is practically healthy. It’s not like I don’t get enough sleep.  It’s just that getting up with 7 hours sleep in a lot more palatable at noon than it is at 8am.
Oh well, at least I have Charlie to greet me good morning on that most terrible of days.
 Posted by at 8:51 pm

Psystar

 Apple  No Responses »
Apr 172008
 

I’m sure that anyone who is remotely interested in technology, Apple in particular, will have heard of the small company Psystar who have recently hit the headlines with their Open Mac. For the rest of you, the Open Mac is a regular PC that is (apparently) able to run OS X with no difficult fiddling. You can even order it with Leopard pre-installed. 

Sounds fishy? You’d be right.
Over the last few days several websites have been trying to contact Psystar to get some details. A few have succeeded in getting a phone interview with the Director of the company but nothing new has really been learnt. The most details came about when the Guardian’s Charles Arthur did some digging. He couldn’t find anything about Psystar from before this week and the company isn’t even listed with the Miami Chamber of Commerce.
Hmmm.
The best bit came when Charles did a google map search for the address and found it to be a small residential home. A few minutes later the address had changed to an industrial estate. Gizmodo popped down to this address and found no trace of the company…
I’m loving this little mystery. I hope no one got caught up in the hype and actually ordered one of these things because it’s looking more and more likely that they will never see their much anticipated Hackintosh. 
I wonder what surprises tomorrow holds!
 Posted by at 6:31 pm

Hong Kong – Tokyo

 round the world, Travel  No Responses »
Apr 132008
 

I booked our flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo this week. We ran into a bit of trouble with Tokyo as it seems that travel companies aren’t really too fond of the little island of Japan. 

Our original plan was to fly in with Air New Zealand and then get a one way ticket to Hong Kong as Air New Zealand doesn’t fly out of Tokyo. This, however, turned out to cost around £700 each. 
Instead we had to change our flight so we went straight to Hong Kong and then look into getting a return to Tokyo.  A return is considerably cheaper than a one way ticket. Although this did throw up a positive in the sense that we get to spend a night and half a day in Taipei.
So this is the last flight booked and once we book our Greyhound bus from L.A. to San Francisco we will have all of our travel booked. Huzzah.
 Posted by at 12:45 pm

Louis Theroux’s African Hunting Holiday

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Apr 082008
 

I noticed Louis Theroux’s new documentary on the BBC’s main page under their little iPlayer heading. Firstly, I wonder why this one didn’t get the publicity that the earlier episodes of this series received. Or is it just that I’m not as clued up on TV’s goings on since I lost my access to digital TV and it’s EPG.

Anyway, I’m always happy to see a new Louis Theroux, I find his films both fascinating and horrifying. 
This particular film opens with a child pointing a rifle at a warthog. Louis watches on nervously as the child fires killing the animal. We then see her smiling and posing with the corpse.
Louis is spending time with an array of ‘farmers’ in South Africa who raise (what us Brits would consider) exotic animals for (mostly American) people to ‘hunt’ in fenced off parts of land. As they are paid by the animal, the ‘farmer’ is forced to make the ‘hunt’ as easy as possible.  This is usually achieved by placing the hide next to a watering hole, preferably with some food near.
The hunters we see along the way are exclusively American.  They talk excitedly about how much they want to shoot a Rhino or an Elephant or a Lion. There is no emotion there. They standing laughing and drinking whilst their children laugh and play among half a dozen dead animals being skinned and dismembered. 
This is their idea of a holiday in Africa.  This is how they interact with the continents stunning animals. Some people go on safari, these people go hunting endangered species.
One moment that worried me above all was when we find ourselves watching Louis pointing a crossbow at a warthog. He takes the safety catch off and you genuinely think he is going to shoot. Thankfully he backs out.
We meet some odd people along the way. One farmer is particularly fond of his giraffes. He forbids anyone from hunting them. There is also a real sense of sadness when he realises that one of his animals may have been shot and not killed – only injured and in pain. I don’t think he will be in the business for much longer.
 Posted by at 6:33 pm

Dexter

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Apr 022008
 

I have been fairly terrible at giving this blog the attention it deserves over the last week or so. Partly this is because my girlfriend has been using my iMac for her university dissertation (her TiBook is still out of service due to a faulty power supply. I’ve ordered another one so hopefully I can use that while she uses the iMac. It’s running Leopard and I think Time Machine was designed specifically for people writing two 8000 word essays). 

But mostly it is because of Dexter. Now I usually detest american serials. I did watch the first series of Lost over the course of about 3 days but I gave up after episode 12 of series 2 when I realised that nothing significant had happened. 
But Dexter is different.
Dexter is a US cop drama with a twist. The protagonist, Dexter Morgan, is himself a serial killer who hunts down murderers to relieve his dark urges. The characters are generally likeable with the exception of Debra, Dexter’s adoptive sister and the dialogue is clever and witty. The audience is supposed to identify with Dexter thus supporting him in his morally dubious affairs (a device that found the show embroiled in controversy when it aired on American non cable TV). 
I won’t carry on with some lengthily review but I will urge you to give Dexter a watch. The first series is coming out on DVD next month and I think ITV are running it at the moment. I suggest going down the DVD route as the idea of having to wait a week between episodes is really quite terrifying…
 Posted by at 10:42 pm