So it arrived; late. I knew it would - things like this always are, things this big are just not meant to run smoothly. Yet still I was up at all hours waiting for its official release and damn disappointed when it became clear it wasn't happening. Nice to know Bungie are giving us 4 extra days of Beta time.

Anyway - the game. It is pretty much all you can expect from a Halo game (multiplayer wise). The setup is overly similar to Halo 2 with the key differences being some nice graphics, more guns, more vehicles and more maps. That is not a bad thing. The game is fantastic online, and the matchmaking system works a treat - you are also able to move as a party of friends, instead of individually moving from server to server. This will make clan matches, and gaming with friends a lot easier. The beta comes with a few maps that throw in nothing really new, although the man-cannon is an awesome exception.

The great thing about the game is that it promotes teamwork. Sticking in groups will yield greater results almost every time thanks to the health system - if you come across an enemy and start firing a little out of optimum range, chances are you will miss a lot and by the time you get closer he can easily take you out as your clip runs dry, this is where a teammate can step in to finish him off - chances are he has no armour left so it should be an easy kill.

Riding round in your Warthog with a gunner and someone riding shotgun has to be one of the coolest online experiences, you become this moving death machine, making mince meat of enemy positions. Of course there are plenty of counters, but when it works it's just great.

As a whole the Beta was as I had expected, the only qualm I have about the graphics is that there are a lot of jaggies, hopefully Bungie will sort these out with some anti-aliasing or something on release.

In other news I bought myself an Intuos3 graphic pad. Made the image up there with it on one of my first tries so I'm thinking it was a good investment and will probably come in handy for my degree.

So yesterday the guys from UPS came round and delivered. What appears to be a new - or very well refurbished 360 console. Best thing of all is that is works! Little disappointed that I didn't get a free HDD by mistake but I can't complain really. :P Apparently the warranty on a return is only 30 days, so I'll give MS a call tomorrow and try to get a free extension - or just pay their £30 for an extra year.

While broken I decided to buy GRAW2 and I can tell you it is a really fantastic game. The demo put me off a little bit but only because it had a different feel and one could say I'm a creature of habit. I've only just started the SP thanks to the excellent MP. I also purchased Worms on Arcade - although it would appear my once present skills are.....no longer present - it's still great all the same.

In other news, the UK PS3 Launch is just days away (2 to be exact) and there are already people queueing outside Virgin Megastore. Why I ask? I look on websites such as play.com and amazon and it seems you can STILL pre-order a PS3. I rememer having to wait a little while before my 360 was available, clearly the launch is much more organised - or perhaps not everything Sony hoped for in terms of pace. I see some things in the PS3 I like, but it's not enough to convince to pay such a vast ammount when I have a console that seems to do all the things it can (game related) better. And it really is a vast ammount - £425 equates to $835! Apparently, with the strengh of the Yen on the up the likelyhood of a price drop has increased - but it better be more than 20 quid.

Also, what the HELL is up with this new WYSIWYG editor, you can't even control+v/paste in Firefox thanks to the Microsoft powered POS and I'll probably have to follow some guide by Mozilla to change the settings. It's slow to use, I had a spell-checking extension working just fine and for the most part I don't need one! I mean I know there are a lot of people out there who don't know how to spell or linkify text - and sure the java editor just didn't do it properly but all the same.....bah!

I'm sure I'll get used to it (and end up loving it) - like I said I'm a creature of habit.

Well it happened. My launch 360 console flashed three red lights and is now a lump of junk. And guess what else? It's one month outside of its warranty. Lovely. The console has had a few issues with freezing in the past and I had hoped that maybe I was one of the lucky ones in my poll I had made a few days ago. http://uk.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?board_id=909102864&topic_id=25388201 Of course I called Microsoft customer service, vented a little steam, but I already knew the response. Well not quite - the bit I didn't know was quite how much they want to charge me. £85 ($167) for a refurbished model.....not a replacement. A bloody refurbishment with only 30 days warranty. I never knew I could extend the warranty with MS, something I would have done with my level of paranoia. I don't think it is fair that I should have to pay such an ammount when the console is just outside of warranty. So I requested their address and will write to them in the hope that the recipient might get over "company policy" and do the right thing.........I hope. The Letter: http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3403/mscomplaintbc4.png As I type this my 360 has decided to work again, perhaps for it's last time before it succumbs to its inevitable fate. (Ok - An Update) So this morning - the 9th of March I got a call from "Head Supervisor" at Xbox Support. It seems my letter did get through to them and the man on the phone said, "I see you are out of warranty on your Xbox?"...."Well we will be making an in-warranty repair for you free of charge" I couldn't believe my ears, they actually got my letter and listened to my ramblings and are giving me a free repair! So pleased right now. I don't even have to send in my HDD or controllers etc. just the console. Should be back up and running in the next 15 days he said. Awesome. All I can say is that nothing beats a good old fashioned letter and perseverance.

That's lvl 21:P
I don't usually post about breaking the next level but 21 is something of an achievement around here.

Also made a video the other day, so what did people think?
[video=I3czwmP75bgJvzHW]

After seeing so many of these "how old are you" threads I kept thinking why the special poster didn't put a poll in there so there was actually some sort of purpose to the thread. Alas, this didn't happen so I started such a thread with a poll (I don't start a lot of threads).

It proved popular and after 190 votes the results are as follows for users of OT.


Make of them what you will, I wanted to do the same thing in SW - betting the average would be lower - but the mods wouldn't let me.....

So it seems the suspension issue I had a few months ago came back to haunt me. After trying to use the usual customer service method, and gaining no reply I decided to ask an Admin and some Mods about the action taken regarding that offence - via creating another account.

Months later, it seems I was banned for creating that account, for which at the time, even the Admin I had contacted had little problem with - other than to tell me not to do it again.

At first I was convinced there was a mistake and contacted the Mods, turned out only Admin could help me on this one, so I emailed one Admin - but he turned out to be from the UK and couldnt help me.

I used the customer service, but as usual, no response - does anyone actually work in that department?!

So this afternoon, a month after my ban, I emailed another Admin, this time from the US who decided that my offence was mild enough for my account to be reinstated. So here I am.

Sounds very short and simple but it wasn't. Just glad to be back.

Now for some real Apple news:

I've been holding these images since back in March of this year and had assumed that the Apple press conference would unveil it. But that didn't happen, instead Apple talked about other things - some interesting some not so. I hear a lot of people talking garbage against the iPod and recently people have said the Zune is going to be the "iPod killer"......you people haven't a clue....


Playing Ice Age 2. (see that squirrel thing?)



The main new feature to the iPod is the touch-screen. This now covers the entire face and a "virtual" click-wheel operates using the touch-sensitivity. This allows for movies etc. to be seen on the largest space possible. Once a music track or film has been selected, the click-wheel fades and will return once the screen is touched again - hence the "virtual"

I can't say when this will be out or details on HDD space, resolution or other specs; but I can say iPod is on top of their game and the anti-tend people need to get off their high horses.

So I am back after being suspended for "jew-bashing"?.....

Firstly I shall make it clear that I am not a recluse in the desert, I live in London, a place where there are many Jews. One of my friends is Jewish and my next door neighbour is Jewish, what I am getting at is that I live alongside and have no problem with the Jewish people....moving on.

http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24865413

Inside was a link to an incendent that happended over j-date, a Jewish mate.com. Essentially it's about a guy that requests the girl pay up her half of the bill when he decides they won't go out again, it is highly amusing I suggest viewing:

http://prdifferently.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/how_not_to_act_.html

Anyway, the thread title was enough for a 4 day suspension that lasted 5, despite an open apology. When I had used the word "prudent" I had not meant to cause offence and while, looking back, I should just have never included the word "jew" in there, I thought this response was completely out of order.

I think one of the problems is that people today feel victimised all too easily, and political correctness has reached a choking level of restriction on what one is allowed to say. I don't need to be suspended so some overly sensitive, insecure individual sleeps well at night.