LucasH

It's a great thing when you find a really good RPG, and Dragon Age: Origins is exactly that.

During the lead up to this game, I was trepidatious, I thought, I don't want to get too into the idea of this game and be disappointed by it, but after playing it, I'm hooked, and all my fears have been put to rest.

Okay where to start... character creation is pretty good, it's not the most in-depth I've used, but it's a damn sight better than many out there. The character models can be made to look pretty good, though the elves take a bit of work to get to look anything other than horrid. The dwarves look awesome, too. I've played through the human noble intro, and both the dwarven noble and commoner intros, and they are both quite good, too. I've gotten a moderate way into the game, and it's really very fun.

I've noticed a few of the voice actors from Baldur's Gate II in this game, and that's honestly what this game reminds me of. It's like the Baldur's Gate II of modern gaming, and I'm thoroughly happy and impressed by that. This is a game where the storyline is one that you actually care about, and the level of detail in history and back-story is just fantastic. Along the way you will get many a 'codex' which are the medium through which you learn about the history of the families, lands, and religion, of the people you're fighting to save from an evil horde of 'Darkspawn'. The game is very, very bloody, but there's also a sense of humour to it so it isn't too dark, but this is certainly not a game for children.

So far I've preferred going a noble human, and my normal party consists of my Mabari War Hound, a very large, aggressive, yet lovable dog, Alistair, and Leliana. This is working at the moment, though I'm not adverse to shifting party members around when needed.

The game runs smoothly, and has crashed on me three times in a week, which for a newly released game that's alright. The voice acting is actually very good, with some big names in there, such as Kate Mulgrew and Tim Curry.

All in all, I'm very impressed with the game. It plays well, reads well, sounds good, looks good, and above all, is really very, very enjoyable! My SO hasn't been playing it herself, but has really enjoyed watching it whilst I play. She's going to play it as an elven mage, so that should be good to watch, too. She wants me to play as much as I like to play, because it's enjoyable to view, too.

I think that's enough for now, but suffice to say, if you play RPGs at all, and you've an alright PC, an XBOX 360, or a PS3, pick up this game! I downloaded mine off Steam and it's been very good that way, and you pay less overhead, too, which is nice.

I didn't realise just how much being sick can  resurrect old injuries...

Earlier this year I was involved in a small car accident – I’m sure I’ve written about this multiple times – and I had mild whiplash symptoms and back pain... and I couldn't turn my head for a little while... okay, they weren’t that mild, but anyway, that neck stiffness and the back pain has really bothered me during the worst of the flu, and I was surprised at that. I suppose I’ll have to go back to physical therapy for a while, to make sure everything really is back in order, but my insurance company will cover that, so it’s okay, except that I don’t really have the time, but I suppose I’ll just have to find it.

I’ve also found that my good ol’ familiar friend, ‘gaming wrist’ as I like to call it is back with a vengeance. This is the unavoidable consequence of hours spent on the computer for work, and then also for gaming. I’m back to wearing my wrist guards, which help, and I think I’m going to have to go out and get a wrist rest at some point… or ask my SO to because she has kept me in the house and resting for the last two weeks and with the weather getting the way it is I can’t see her letting me out for a while yet.

Generally I’m feeling incredibly old, and before this flu hit me I was feeling pretty good, actually. I had that nice feeling of health, you know, but now I just feel old and dried up and a little brittle. It’s not a good feeling, and I’m looking forward to feeling much more myself in the coming weeks. I’ve spoken to others who’ve had the virus, and it varies greatly as to how long it takes you to get back on your feet. I just hope that this isn’t a precursor of flu viruses in the future!

Of something else I've been meaning to write about...

I’ve noticed a growing trend, maybe it’s due to getting closer to the holiday season and what not, but I’ve noticed more and more emails in my Inbox which are little more than spam… no wait, they are spam, but they are spam from companies that I am already affiliated with in some way, or have purchased from in the past, or have some sort of rewards card with or something like that. In some cases the promoted items or services aren’t from companies I’ve dealt with directly, but more a cross-promotion sort of thing.

As with BT - they are notably bad with this, I don’t actually have a phone line with them anymore, but I did a few years ago, and I’m still getting spammy messages from them about upcoming deals on BT home phones. Presumably if I liked the business, I would have stayed with the business, so if I don’t use their services anymore, shouldn’t I not have to put up with them? It’s not just them, either, telecoms companies are pretty annoying with the whole spamming thing, probably because there’s so much competition in the field. I’m happy with my provider at the moment, so no, I don’t want your telephone system, I like mine, thank you!

It’s the same with internet connections, whether they are broadband, ADSL, or SDSL, the company always thinks that they can trick you into upgrading to a more expensive package. Its sort of insulting, I mean, I’m on a very high downloads per month package as it is, and I don’t go anywhere near my limit most months, so why would they send me emails on an almost weekly basis trying to get me to upgrade.

And yet, one of the most frustrating aspects about all of this is that to get off these mailing lists you have to follow link after link, and they are always tucked in the most out of the way parts of the emails or webpages that you go to, and you often find that they’ve sneakily altered the usual button set-ups, so you have to click on the left button, which is normally the ‘Cancel’ button. Anyway, that’s enough out of me for now, on this topic anyway.

I am now getting over H1N1, the worst flu of my life.

So, after nearly two weeks of nothing happening on my blog, it should start to come back to life over the coming weeks, and then things should be as they were. It's been a horrid two weeks, the only saving grace has been the constant love and attention from my SO; she nursed me through the whole thing. It's been grand to have her take care of me, and I really appreciate her for it.

I've never before felt so lethargic in my life, I was sleeping away most of the day, and when I was awake, it wasn't a very nice experience. This virus really knocked the wind out of my sails, I still feel very weak and I know it's going to be a few more weeks before I feel like my old self.

My work has been very understanding, which has been nice. I think everyone is just so concerned when they hear you've got this thing that's been blaring on the news for the last three months, and I have to say, it does pull you up short when you realise you've got it... I knew it was out there, but really thought I was healthy enough that I wouldn't get sick. I suppose you can't tell with these things sometimes.

As I said, I'm on the mend now, and I'm hoping to keep my blog much more up to date with everything that I usually write on. I've missed my daily rant, you know. Well, it's not always a rant, sometimes it's a ramble, it's what it is, and I don't feel the need in my current state to delve too deeply into what exactly my blog is 'about', because in the harsh light of sickness, it seems altogether random, perhaps it's like Seinfeld in it's 'about nothing' but 'about everything' kind of approach... anyway, more later!

Is something I refuse to do, so in spite of finding Mini Ninjas to be mildy interesting, I shall not ever play it.

Basically, I won't pay for a game that I don't think I'm going to get a good amount of play time from or isn't a very good game. I don't like to have anything approaching chaff in my collection, and a game that's overly short, overly easy - is actually aimed predominantly at children, but has same effect - and only got an 8.0 from IGN, unfortunately approaches chaff. I know it's not a bad game, but to me, the comments lead me to believe it's a so-so game.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that, if you were going to hire it. But I won't do that. Want to know why? In the past I've hired DVDs and games, and I've seen what they look like. The scratches, fingerprints, and general grime on these things is utterly revolting. I would rather stamp on my own foot that put one of those disgusting discs in my PS3, or any console or player in my home.

Because in the past, before I was like this, I would try it. I would hire games and DVDs and try them, only to find they didn't work. That was infuriating, but then to go back and have them ask you stupid questions - "did you put the disc in with the shiny side down?" - and in any way attempt to blame you for their piece of crap disgusting disc not working is more than this irate gamer can take.

I've often found that it's best to just avoid these sorts of situations, but it is frustrating, because it would be nice to be able to try a game that you wanted to play for a few hours, but didn't want to all out buy, but ah well. I'd rather miss out on a little game than go through the ordeal that is the hiring process.

I was about to write a new post here, and I happened to check my comments, and my eyes nearly goggled at how many there were, and how long it would take to delete them with Blogr's super slow reaction times.

A new record… 119 spam posts all waiting for me to Approve, Spam, Delete, Edit, Quick Edit, or Reply… Yeah, I think I know what I’ll do there. I always mark it all as spam, and then usually I delete it all, but now I’m thinking of leaving it there for a month and seeing how many spam comments I have sitting there!

I was going to write more about mortgage market news, and what it’s up to. You know, current prices on mortgage deals and so on. Something that did surprise me was the move back towards the more ‘high risk’ mortgages, as in the bad credit mortgage loans and whatnot. I pretty much hate the whole ‘credit’ industry. It’s been a shockingly good way for a few to make money, and a great many to bleed money out their you-know-what. That’s why there are so damn many of those cash for home businesses, and that’s a sad thing, if you ask me.

Spam and mortgages… seems to go together in a way. Constant source of irritation and stress, and the best news you can get about it is that it’s over! The sad thing is that all this spam is unavoidable, there are so many blog posts out there about hatred of spam, or the unfortunate amount of cheap labour employed overseas to spam WordPress blogs. There are a few ways of fighting it, but when you just want to jump on your blog and blog, well, you don’t really want to go through too much to actually get to why you were there in the first place.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. All you Russian spammers, I’m sincerely hoping you get a better job soon. I know what you do much suck, suck pretty bad, and I bet you get paid a pittance for it, too, and really, it’s not your fault so much as the moron who hired you to spam WordPress blogs with links to their stupid website that sells pharmaceuticals illegally. So, to all those spamming my blog, I wish you better luck with your next job!

Well, less bloody, actually. The creators of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 have decided to reduce the blood for this new title in the series.

So, yes, I'm sort of surprised that they can say with such certainty that there is exactly 57% less blood than Ninja Gaiden II, but there you have it. There is still blood in the game, still red cuts when you hit an enemy, still blood spatters on walls and floors, but when you cut off a limb of an opponent in game no longer is there a gout of red, but instead the exact same gout... but now in blue!

It was apparently done to appeal to a broader audience, especially in Japan where violence is frowned upon. That's a hard pill to swallow, considering they are the home of the Yakuza, and have a history - right up to the first half of the last century - of being one of the most violent nations on the planet, and seem to have no qualms in completely and utterly objectifying women. Personally, I don't care for the level of gore in the previous games, but I still find it strange nonetheless that a country that loves Dead or Alive games would have issues with blatant violence.

It's a strange choice, too, to keep in some blood effects, but to alter others only in colour. Why not reduce them, or take them out, or make all the 'blood' blue? This half measure way of doing it is odd, and doesn't seem right to me.

I'm all for maturation of the medium, but I would rather it was consistent throughout the entire game, not just some randomly chosen aspects being changed whilst others left the same. It's a very strange approach, and I'm interested to see how people respond when they get their hands on the games.

So far the response out there is rather mixed. There are those like myself, who appreciate the reduced gore, but don't like the approach, and there are those who think that both those aspects are fine, and then there are those who are now really aggravated about it. Those people I don't understand at all!

Well, we'll find out soon enough how it all goes, the game ships to us Brits at the beginning of October.

It's the sequal to a very good game, from what I've heard, but I've not had a chance to play it yet, but this review makes me want to.

When I was looking into whether or not purchasing a PS3 would be a good idea for me, personally, I found the first Uncharted game touted as being among the best on the system. I looked up videos and reviews and thought that it looked like a really great game, it's on my list of games to get.

I was perusing IGN as I normally do, and then noticed that in the few minutes I'd been on the site, the Uncharted 2 review had gone up. I eagerly clicked on the link to the video review, and watched on rather happily, finding the game was even better than I'd expected.

I've yet to play it, so I can only work from the review and my impressions of what I've seen in videos, but this game does look really, really good. The graphics are mind bogglingly good, and the story looks to be a heck of a lot of fun. Seriously, trekking around the world in search of treasure? It's like being Indiana Jones but without the cliché!

The voice acting seems nicely done, and the character models move really well. The locations look to be quite varied and lots of fun, from verdant jungle to icy mountain sides, it all looks really great.

The game received a 9.5 from IGN, a fantastic score, and is currently sitting at 10 even for the reader average. That's a pretty amazing score, there, and I really hope the game is as good as they say.

My only draw back is that I'm a little disappointed by ten hours of single play. Co-op is fun, I'd like to try that, but I'm not hugely into online play, so this aspect doesn't make up for only ten hours of actual story-mode gameplay.

Nonetheless I fully intend on picking this game up, after I've picked up the first one, of course!

Well, he was, until he ventured out of a cave and was killed by children... when I say Gollum I mean this really weird creature.

Okay so the run down is as follows. A group of teenagers where playing near a lake in Panama. There’s a waterfall and cave near this lake, and apparently this creature came out of the cave, and came up some rocks towards the teens. They felt threatened, describing the creature as standing 150cm tall, so threw rocks and used sticks to beat the creature to death. They then tossed the carcass back into the lake, and told their parents who went to have a look for themselves.

The parents found the carcass had washed up on the shore, and within a few days the body was showing signs of decomposition and having been eaten by buzzards…

Okay so now what I think of this whole thing. I think it’s a hoax. Reasons… the decomposed body sure enough looks like a sloth, but it doesn’t account for the body shown in the previous shots. First off, that decomposition looks fairly dry, yet we are talking about Panama, next to a lake… Tropical location, heading into Autumn, is not exactly going to dry the thing out. Not to mention, that’s an extreme level of decomposition for a few days, and if it had in fact been eaten by buzzards, then why was so much of the skin still in tact? No, this looks to be a sloth that has been decomposing for quite a while, in a dry place.

Now onto the freshly dead photos. This creature is supposedly three times the height of a regular sloth, which grow usually between 50 to 60cm tall. If you look at this creature, yes the hands look sloth like, but the face is too long for a sloth face, which have short faces with small pointed muzzles. Very different. The big kicker, the thing that screams fake to me about this thing…

If this creature was stoned and beaten to death, then why aren’t there any marks of such attacks upon it in the photos? Seriously, this is a major discrepancy, and all the other stuff could be explained, but that last fact is rather important. There’s no defence marks on the arms, no marks on the face, head, neck, chest, abdomen… Unless they managed to only hit the animal from behind, which seems rather unlikely considering they were throwing rocks at it because it was coming towards them.

Anyway, here’s a link to Metro’s story about it, and here's MSN's story about it.

Which means I'm most likely not going to be playing the game... That's just the way it is.

So yeah, don’t have as much time for gaming as I used to, which is why I haven’t been playing LOTRO so much. That’s a little sad, because I think it’s a great game, but there it is. I’m still interested in MMOs though, so when Champions Online was coming up, I thought I may drop in and give it a go.

But then I saw the review today on IGN… 7.6 from them, but the reader review average is 6.7. Now, I usually don’t play games that got under 8.5, so this means that Champions Online is completely and totally out, unless they put out an expansion that dramatically alters the score for the overall game, I won’t be playing it.

The reader reviews are really interesting, actually. They seem to swing between scores of 3.5 through to 5, which basically talk about how buggy the game is, repetitive, animations aren’t working, skills aren’t working, and powers have already been nerfed. Then you have those who are rating this game around 8 to 9 saying it’s fun, especially once you’ve a few friends to quest with.

I have to say, though, that a quick look over of the reviews with the low scores, and the reviews with the high scores, that the low score reviews are better written and more in-depth, whereas the high score reviews are a little superficial and you sort of get the impression these people would be happy playing any game.

So, from what I’ve read, this game sounds unfinished, and it really doesn’t look all that good, either. Server downtime seems to be a big issue, which I find hugely frustrating when you’re paying for a subscription.

All in all, with what the reviewer on IGN said, I’m sort of surprised they reviewed this game as highly as they did.

It's about time I took a full day off from work. I've not had a day off in about two weeks, and it's really wearing me down.

All my usual routines shall fall away, I’m going to spend tomorrow doing as little as possible. Lounge around in my bathrobe all day long, I really love doing taht. I feel so indolent, and I don’t often get to feel that, so that’s what tomorrow shall be for me.

Don’t expect to see a post from me, either, I’m serious about doing as little as possible. I’m going to spend much of the day gaming, because I’ve really not had the time I would have liked to fully test all my new games and wear my new PS3 in.

Right now I’m looking through the last work related stuff for the day, then off to relax until the Tuesday! I was just looking over some recent savings news before I toddled off for the beginning of my rest, because it seems like it’s a really pertinent time to be watching the markets, online expatriate savings accounts seem to be doing rather well, in spite of it’s niche market potential, as do SIPP investments, though that’s not all that surprising.

I’m really hoping that after all this financial storminess blows over, people will have learned a valuable – if hard – lesson in savings and investments. Especially in not taking on more than you can handle. That’s the saddest part, if you ask me, all those people who lost their homes to foreclosure. It’s one thing to have to tighten your belt, a whole different thing to lose your home. There’s something so intrinsically wrong with that if you ask me.

I think people have learned, to some extent, I mean, look at the increase in child trust funds. People are realising that things ought to change, that we can’t keep doing things the way they’ve been done, just because they’ve been done that way in the past.

Anyway, I’m in a good mood, so off I go, ignoring the super-spammer I’ve got dogging my site at the moment. And always posting in Russian! I’ve got no idea what this fellow is saying!

Goodness, I don't know if I'll 'rock out' to anything... I'm not the 'rocking out' sort.

Firstly, lets be clear, I’ve not played any of the Rock Band, Guitar Hero, games… at all. Nor any of those ‘Sing Star’ games. I’ve not had a PlayStation in a long while, and I’ve not felt compelled to play these games in spite of generally liking rhythm games. I think it’s being told to like them that puts me off… Does that make me contrary? Maybe…

Anyway, this one is getting some odd reactions. Reviewers are treating it like the bees knees, the cat’s meow, and all sorts of animal related idioms. It’s sitting at 9.0 on IGN, and Metacritic is showing it at 89, but there seems to be some less than stellar fan reviews. Basically, there are two camps regarding this game.

First camp, the major review sites. They say it’s awesome, great song list, visuals are pretty good, sound is pretty good, not a huge challenge of a Rock Band game, though. Second camp, the players. A heck of a lot of players are panning this game due to how easy it is, which leads to it getting boring quickly, and the fact that the amount of songs on the game compared to the amount of songs that you can download if you pay for. If you’ve read much of my blog you’ll know I absolutely detest games being released with downloadable content already available should you pay for it. That’s total BS, in my opinion, and just a very nasty practice being used by game producers.

So, where do I sit in all this? It seems to me that if you like The Beatles and you have a PS3, you’d be a little silly not to get this game at some point. However, if you’re like me, and The Beatles aren’t really your thing, then this probably isn’t the title for you. So, I think I’ll continue along having not played any of the Rock Band games until one comes along that is just too awesome to pass up. This title does not meet this standard for me, but as I said, I think Beatles fans will go mental for it.

Final Fantasy XIII may not be out for a few more more months, but at least there is some release media to pour through in the mean time.

The storyline is set around the expulsion of a race, called the fal’Cie, by humans, from a floating paradise like city called Cocoon. Originally the fal’Cie created Cocoon for humans, but thirteen centuries later, humans are scared of the fal’Cie, because some of them can become l’Cie, which are people with special destinies, which if they don’t fulfil, become Cie Corpses, which are big scary monsters. The humans are trying to force the fal’Cie to move back to the surface of the planet, called Pulse, which has strange effects on people and the governing body of Cocoon, the Theocratic Sanctum, have a staunch quarantine that anyone who’s been to the surface of Pulse can’t get back into Cocoon.

The story centres around a few characters, which all happen to become l’Cie, even though they didn’t want that to happen, and their fight against the army, called PSICOM, to stop them purging Cocoon of the fal’Cie.

The story line is intriguing, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. There is a demo and a few trailers available to watch here on IGN, which show the game to be just amazing. The most impressive visuals on an RPG yet, in my opinion, and the transition between cut-scene and in-game is startlingly similar.

It’s nice to see the good ol’ Eidolons back, with Odin, Shiva, Ifrit, and Carbuncle, and apparently, not only their respective summoning scenes are amazing, but you can also combine your character with their Eidolon to get some form of… transportation that can do damage during battles. Odin becomes a horse like creature that his summoner, Lightning, can ride, whilst Shiva is actually summoned in the form of two sisters, Nix and Styria, and they turn into a motorcycle that their summoner, Snow, can ride. Carbuncle is summoned by Vanille, and he turns into a disc, and Ifrit, who is summoned by Sazh, turns into a hotrod racing car.

I really can’t wait to get my hands on this game, do yourself a favour and check out those videos on IGN.

Yeah, that's right, you suck! I use hotmail for all my non-work stuff, because I've done it for a long time, and I'll continue to for a long time. I'm a bit of a fanboy, and I started on Hotmail a long time ago, so that's the way it stays.

I got a comment on my blog from someone who said that they had seen the site on Technorati, so I went over and decided to join up – looks like an awesome site, actually! – and ‘claim’ my blog. All was going well, save having to find a user name took a few tries, until it got to verification time. There was a little message at this point saying if you didn’t get the message, check this FAQ. Over I went, thinking smugly that I was just filling in time, that my email account wasn’t one of those frustrating ones which wouldn’t let this process occur, nooooo, of course not!

I have a Hotmail account that I use for all non-work stuff. The company I work for have a very strict policy about non-work related emails, it’s insane. Anyway, because I’ve had this Hotmail account for about eight, nearly nine, years, I don’t much fancy using anything else. Seems fair enough, right? Anyone notice how the free Hotmail accounts stopped giving you the option to ‘block’ some time ago? Well, I get a heck of a lot of spam and phishing scam emails as a result, and I can deal with that, at least they still go to the Junk box.

But this verification email is just gone, lost, never to be seen in my Inbox, and I’m really annoyed. I wanted to join this site, but now the chances of that seem rather diminished. All I can hope is that some nice person will read this, and post me the email address the verification link comes from, so I can add it in Hotmail as a contact, and then I’ll get the email! So that’s still really annoying, but nice to know people are reading my blog!

Penny Arcade's new art style and site set up, that is.

If you go right back to the start of Penny Arcade, you can see how far Gabe's come in his art. The characters look a lot better, smoother, just... more professional. This new art style seems to harken back overly to the original Penny Arcade, and it makes Gabe's work look less good for it. I don't know what the heck is going on over there, and I haven't seen any mention of it on the forums over there, but it just looks a bit cheaper, a bit nasty.

The whole site has a new style, too. The menu buttons have all be squished over to the sides, which means any time you want to use them, you spend the first second searching for them. Bad design, very bad design. Even the fonts are ugly... what are they thinking?

Looking back over comics from earlier this year, I'd have to say the colour pallet is slightly different, the backgrounds are tending to be less detailed, and the characters themselves seem to have thinner outline lines, and I'd say that a major difference is the eyes. They seem to be just slightly different, leading to the characters looking a little... stupid... I don't want to say that, but that's the affect.

Of course, these are all very slightly noticeable, two degrees less saturation on colours will be hard to specifically notice, yet has an impact... I'm being picky I suppose because I really like the comic, it's the only web comic I keep up with. It's frustrating to see their site and their comic go downhill. I'm hoping that the comics are just the intervening ones whilst they are at PAX, and that they are the reserves that were done some time ago.

On a side note, I'd like to say congratulations to Tycho on his second bundle of very cute joy, Ronia Quinn.

Just a little bit back I happened to be viewing a new entry in a blog I find funny, and noticed a blog entry title in someone's comment so took a look at it because it seemed interesting. The post was really very surprising in it's level of outrageous hostility.

I couldn’t believe this woman’s anger at the news story she was writing about. It was mind boggling, shocking, disquieting, and kind of disgusting. I was looking over the comments, seeing all of them agree with her rant, and then there was one comment, a really, really, huge comment, that actually said everything I had wanted to say. I’m going to quote that comment here, purely because I think they’re right, that comment will be removed pretty much as soon as the blogger sees an actual coherent argument that doesn’t agree with them. But I wanted to add my own feelings to the issue.

I know this is just a blog, and that this is just one person’s opinion, but I find it disturbing that someone could be so uncaring about another human being. The kid sprayed some graffiti on some buildings, and he’s going to prison for six months for it, but she thinks this isn’t enough. He’s not just ‘tagging’ these buildings, either, he’s an actual artist, and this ‘lady’ has a dig at him for that, as well. What’s wrong with people? She accuses this kid of being a sociopath, but she’s the one exhibiting more antisocial behaviour. Bah, I just don’t get it. Please read the link above with her rant in it, and then read the comment I’ve quoted below if it isn’t still on the blog in question.

E-Fairy Said:

Wow, your level of rage seems wildly disproportionate to what this young person actually did. I don’t believe the article was at all trying to excuse this young man, in fact, it seemed surprisingly fact based and non-emotive, especially after what you had said about it. Why are you so outraged that he didn’t answer a question due to discomfort? Tell me, isn’t there anything you don’t do because you would find it uncomfortable or distasteful? Does this young person not have that right also?

You call him a “psychopath” a term not even used any more by clinical psychologists or psychiatrists. A term that, essentially, means sociopath, though that it also outdated, and has been replaced by antisocial personality disorder. Do you know what that actually means? Your suggesting this young man has no conscience, no understanding of right and wrong, and no empathy. I think that is a bit far fetched, now isn’t it?

As for monsters are created, not born, I believe you’ll actually find that nearly all who would fit under the definition of ‘monster’ already had a predilection for psychological issues, and some of the worst known serial killers, suffers of antisocial personality disorder, were actually raised in strict yet loving homes. So that blows your theory, or should I say that part of your rant, completely out of the water.

You also claim to know what this young man has faced in his life, in spite of not knowing him personally, nor ever even having any contact with him. You resort to name calling, a very childish method of communication indeed.

To top it off, you suggest that your legal system is not harsh enough with sentencing young people, when it has been proven for all the world to see that your country has one of the worst criminal justice systems in terms of rehabilitation and repeat offences. Your prisons hold one in every 31 adults, that’s 7.3 million citizens. It is well documented that your country has the highest rate of incarceration per capita compared to anywhere in the world. And, property crime – as in graffiti – has been on a steady decline since the 1990’s, so maybe you should start to consider that those in control of that particular part of the judicial system, actually know what they are doing, no?

And for goodness sake, if a person has had an exhibition of their artwork, then they’re an artist, whether you like it or not.

I’m under no illusion that this comment will probably not be published on your site, or if it is, it won’t be for very long, but I find your level of intolerance and injustice to be rather disgusting. I’m hoping your own children, should you have any, don’t try to make themselves too comfortable, or expect you to support them through a difficult time should they make a mistake, or really, rely on you in any way for a moral compass.

You tell ‘em!

There are people who always make a profit off of the mistune of others, and I've noticed this in companies offering to buy people's home and offer them cash now, whilst they rent back their houses from the companies.

With the housing market not only taking a nose dive, but them trying to dig through the earth, people got very concerned about what would happen to them as a result. Most of us have felt some differences, even if it’s just noticing how much produce has gone up at markets. I think because this financial crisis started with houses, it’s been the housing markets and current mortgage rates that people have paid the most avid attention, and that’s understandable.

What bothers me though, is the scaremongering going on from those who benefit from those sell for cash quickly or those home buyer type schemes. These companies are all over the place now, if you Google them you will find a smorgasbord of options, and most of them here in the UK. I feel like the common Brit really needs to arm themselves with better information about mortgage news, because these companies are doing this because they are making a rather substantial profit from it, not to help people.

I know these companies aren’t evil, I’m not saying that, what I am saying is that these schemes are so very close to how this whole mess started in the first place, that it’s a little baffling how it’s happening this way now. I’m hoping to see a stronger upswing in the housing market, and hoping to see these companies slowly but surely move onto less exploitative endeavours!

Thank goodness, because this week has felt really long and tiring.

After what feels like months of waiting, a few weeks back the last pieces of my bathroom were put into place. Now, finally, I’ve got a chance to actually enjoy it, because I’m not quite as busy, and that funny smell of newly installed stuff is gone. I hate that smell, that sort of silicone, paint, glue, stuff smell. I’m really happy with how everything turned out, the new bathroom furniture is nice, and not degraded by poor ventilation like our old stuff. We used to have issues with the exhaust fan not working properly, which lead to peeling paint, bowed walls, and cracked tiles thanks to the bowed walls. So after we decided to re-tile everything, and repaint the ceiling, we had one of those natural exhaust systems installed. I found out about it on one of those ethical home websites, when I was looking for a better solution to the one we’d had in there previously.

We ended up buying all our new stuff for the bathroom separately, because even though those bathroom suites packages are cheaper, there aren't many options. We also know that this is going to be our home for a very long time, we have no intention of selling it ever. I’ve noticed many houses going on the market of late, and it does make you realise just how tempting the idea of cash for home sales must be to many home owners. I just hope that those people realise before it’s too late what a bad option that really is for them.

So this afternoon I’m going to take a nice bath, and read for a while. Of course, that’s if I can tear myself away from the PS3 for long enough. Weekends are great for gaming, especially if you have managed to clear every other obligation away, so you just have time for you and your SO to kick back and play Soulcalibur for hours!

My first review of my current PS3 game stash is going to be, naturally enough, for the game I've played the most so far... Soulcalibur 4.

I've played the previous two version of this game, Soulcalibur II on the Dreamcast - right before Sega gave up on creating consoles - and Soulcalibur III on the XBOX, so I was already familiar with many of the game mechanics and characters. SCIV has a few new characters, most of which use weapon styles that veteran players will already be familiar with. The graphics are nice and clear, with good interfaces and character models. The backgrounds are nice in most cases, but the voicing at the beginning of each battle is inane to the point of irritation or hilarity, depending on your mood. 

The fighting is very responsive, with no control lag to speak of. Some of the characters moves remain the same from previous games, though some moves are achieved with distinctly different button and direction combinations. Some of the new game mechanics really add a nice touch to the game, such as armour destruction and the Soul Gauge Critical Finish manoeuvre. The Soul Gauge can be found at the end of your character's health bar, and is a small coloured gem type thing. It starts green, but if you are blocking all your opponent's attacks without landing any hits yourself - blocked or not - then this gem will slowly turn yellow and then red. Once it's flashing red, the opponent has a chance to do a Critical Finish, which is an instant kill move, but it only works if your opponent has also broken a piece of your armour, or broken through your defence, which is when they hit your weapon a whole lot and there's a metallic breaking sound followed by your guard being down in spite of you still holding the correct button. To do this move you have to hit all four face buttons at the same time, or simply L1.

Now, there is too much more to put in just this post, so I've decided to spread the review over two. Not sure if that will happen with all my reviews, but it will with this one.