Super Sunny Sunday

Back in Nottingham now and facing reality once more. Last week was fun though, at the sea side and away from work and everything. Norfolk is a nice area of the country, though if i’m honest there isn’t many areas of the country that I don’t like (except West Bromwich and Uttoxeter possibly) - maybe i’m just easily pleased. 

I took shedloads of pictures of various places we went to, all of which can be viewed here.

In my absence, lots of footy related things have happened. Pompey winning the FA Cup, Hull getting promoted to the premier league (!!), Avram Grant getting the sack and just an hour ago, Doncaster Rovers beating Leeds in the playoffs to get promoted with us! Glad it’s all sorted now, though the departure of Kris Commons on a free transfer is a bit shit.

One Last Thing…

After a few weeks I’ve come to the end of GTA 4. A lot of time and effort and I’m at the final mission. Only problem is that it is not as straightforward as I like. The preceding missions have been fairly easy, but the last one is tricky - as opposed to being hard.

It’s a bit sad coming to the end of the game where the story has been so involving and believable. Sure there are things to do after the story mission is over, but now I’ve come to the end of the game I can understand why the Xbox 360’s downloadable content for the game would be such a draw. Extending this already fine story is a great idea, and while I won’t be getting it (as a PS3 owner), it’ll still be interesting to see how exactly they do it, knowing how the story ends and everything.

Reviews for the game are universally positive, nothing below a 9/10 or a 97%. As Games TM put it, “A new benchmark has been set”. I totally agree, I look forward to the spin off verisons of this game, if Vice City and San Andreas can improve on the already fine GTA 3, then there is no doubt of the improvements that are possible with every GTA 4 ‘chapter’.

I’m also looking out for new PS3 games, after purposely not bothering with anything else other than GTA. I don’t think i’ve actually ejected the game from the console since i bought it! 

This week has been a good one, though not hitting the heights of the previous week. After Forest’s surprise promotion, it has still to fully set in. Though now Forest are going about recruiting new players, and spending £2.5million on them, the reality of it all is dawning. If Bristol City and Hull can claw their way to the right end of the Championship, then it is something that Forest have to aim for. We need to continue this ascension after descending for so many years.

To keep up the good mood, the weather has been way above average until the start of the week. Hot, humid days with temperatures in the mid-twenties, it was all boding well for next weeks jollies. But normal May temperatures have returned. And while the round-the-clock sun might be missed, the stickiness certainly won’t be.

Not to worry though, i’m in the Mediterranean in the autumn where warm, sunny weather is the norm. As is the ability to get sunburnt! 

Good Things Come…

It’s been a great week, truth be told.

It started off with the release of GTA IV. Went into Nottingham early on Tuesday to get the game, already on the side reserved for me, so no Gamestation-style madness of it being out of stock (although as it turns out, it was actually in stock at Gamestation all through release day!). The bus journey home, with the game in my hand, was unbearable!

First impressions were a little disappointment with the graphics. It soon became apparent though, that I was sitting far too close to my TV. I’d been using the Samsung telly as a TV and monitor, so I was really close to it. After moving things round in the bedroom, I got the telly a longer distance away and the game looks better.

It seems that Rockstar have taken all the good bits from San Andreas and improved the hell out of it all. The level of detail in the game is astounding, it really does give you the feeling that you’re playing in a living, breathing city. The realistic way things happen in the game are also notable, like when you’ve shot a cop in the leg or arm, he’ll still try and shoot you but will hobble along or be holding his injured arm. Another example is if you start a fist fight with a female passer-by, some random blokes will come to her aid and start to beat you up.

I could go on and on saying everything I love about this game, but I could be here all day. All the reviews that gave this game top marks will spot on. If there was ever a game to define the genre (that it itself created!), then it is GTA IV. Rockstar have raised the bar yet again, it’ll be interesting to see how the gaming world takes note of this gaming masterpiece. Though with the forthcoming release of Saints Row 2, I doubt Rockstar will be losing sleep.

Away from GTA - and trust me, this week it has been hard! - last week was when Leeds United were told the outcome of their appeal against the 15 point deduction. They’d pissed off the top six or so clubs in League One by this being dragged out. Swansea were still to be given the League One trophy and ourselves, Doncaster and Carlisle would’ve been displaced by a Leeds side that would have gone into second place had they been successful in getting all their points back.

Thankfully, they got absolutely nothing. When they were doing so well earlier this season, they didn’t care about the ‘injustice’ of starting on -15 points, but when things started to wobble they brought it up again. It’s not so much Leeds the football club I’m happy to see be unsuccessful in their appeal, it’s Ken Bates. To put it plain and simple, the guy’s a wanker.

With Swansea able to crowned champions, it was up to us, Donny and Carlisle to fight for second spot. I think it is safe to say that most Forest fans had readied themselves for another shot at the playoffs. We’d got into a form a little too late, i thought. I’d recently become a little detached from Forest (i’ve not been able to get to any games this year), so I decided not listen to the game (v Yeovil) at work yesterday. I might not be the super-mad Forest fan that I was ten years or so ago, but I still care about my club. Turns out though, that they had Radio Nottingham playing through the loudspeaker at the Mail Centre. Not just Radio Nottingham, but their commentary on the Notts County game.

I had to make do with Colin Slater first telling us that Forest were in the lead, then that Doncaster were losing. What had to happen yesterday was that if Doncaster drew or lost, and we won, we would get promoted. I was totally expecting us to choke, as we so often do, but after giving up and listening to my personal radio, I heard Forest to be totally in control of the game.

I’ve never felt so nervous about anything, I couldn’t concentrate on my work, i took too long on my break, my mind just wasn’t there! When Doncaster equalized, I could see us throwing it away. Yeovil then got another goal back and I was expecting the worse. Towards the end though, news came through that Doncaster were losing yet again, with only ten minutes to go. Our game had started about five minutes later than theirs, so as soon as the final score came in from Donny, we knew we were up. 

The whole City Ground was whistling, wanting the game to end. But word then came through that Doncaster had lost, Forest were up! No matter what happened in the remaining three minutes, we were up! The team played out the injury time, then all hell broke loose. The club had wanted the fans to remain seated, but it just wasn’t happening. The pitch soon filled up and the players got mobbed. There are a few pictures dotted around the internet that I’ve seen so far, all of them makes me wish I was there!

So, we snatched automatic promotion on the last day. Nottingham Forest are promoted back to the Championship, how good does that sound? I also think it is pretty safe to say that the future of our top players are secured, for another year at least. And it is so, so good for a little bit of luck and success to come our way after so much shit over the past ten years. This is our first promotion in 10 years, and I hope everyone connected with the club enjoys it all before all the hard work begins.

One thing I do wonder though, what is it that the runners up get? Is it a plate, trophy, plaque? And will we get an open top bus parade through the city? Hope so!

Like a Rainbow

I’ve let Grand Theft Auto take over my life, and it is good to see it all coming together, but more on that in a bit.

Firstly, I’ve gone and got a song STUCK in my head, with no hope of getting it out! The latest Sony Bravia ad, with all the plasticine rabbits, has the Rolling Stones song “She’s like a Rainbow” playing as they make their way across New York. It’s been on TV for a while, but since I managed to download the song off You Tube I’ve not been able to get it out of my head. It happens like that every now and again, doesn’t help that it’s a brilliant song. It’s made me want to check out the album that it came from (Their Satanic Majesties Request) as the only Stones stuff I listen to is mid-70’s songs.

It’s also been the soundtrack to a rather fine weekend, weather wise. The first real taste of summer came on Saturday, and what was I doing? Working. What I noticed as I made my way through Nottingham was the amount of people who’d decided this one fine day meant it was time to get the summer clothes out. There were plenty of people walking around the square wearing shorts and t-shirts, or in the ladies case anything skimpy! I can understand why people are like this here in the UK, we aren’t renowned for our long hot summers, so I suppose you have to take your chances while you can.

Saturday night and I was having dinner in town to celebrate Iain’s birthday. He wanted to try out Nando’s. He’d not been there and was quite keen on trying their Extra Hot chicken. Luckily, common sense prevailed and he instead went for the Hot option, after a wise piece of advice from Carter over the long term affects it’d have on his mouth.

Nando’s is nice food, but they seemed to have staff problems at this particular one. I ordered the Chicken Fillet Burger with chips and spicy rice. When it came over to me, the waitress managed to spill a few chips from the plate onto my lap and then onto the floor. After an apology, a manager decided to give me a free portion of chips to make up for the four I’d lost. Result! 

Now, GTA. Over the weekend various videos have appeared on the Internet from people who’ve got the game already. They look incredible, and over the past few days have grown in number. I could provide loads of links to various people who’ve uploaded videos, or indeed some guy who is showing a live link of him playing GTA on his 360, but instead I’ll be the good citizen and not encourage it! From watching the videos, it made me change my mind from not just wanting the game to wanting the game RIGHT NOW! 

Vijay had told me of his intention to go to Tesco’s late tonight to pick up the game, and I was thinking of asking him to get me a copy, but then remembered that he was off Tuesday and I was off Wednesday, so no chance of me getting the game until Thursday. I then hit upon the idea of getting up early today and going into Nottingham to try my luck at all the various game stores. There are quite a few in Nottingham when you think of all the places that sell video games, but I’d been sure to check out the indie stores as the chances of them having stock were more likely than Game or Gamestation, who I’m certain are both already sold out.

I went to Forbidden Planet on Friar Lane, just across the road from where my bus stops. It’s primarily a comic book store/one stop shop for everything cult (Doctor Who, Star Wars etc.). They also sell video games, and have a fairly good and reasonably priced section. I wandered in there and asked the guy if I was too late to pre-order the game, he gave me a puzzled look and explained that they had in fact got loads of stock. Whenever people buy games they rarely think of Forbidden Planet, he said. He pointed to copies of Mario Kart and Wii Fit behind him as a case in point.

So, pre-ordering was a piece of piss, nothing like the long drawn out process that I was expecting. But what good is a HD game if you don’t have anything HD to play it on? Well that was the problem I faced earlier this week. I bought a cable for my PS3 that enabled a component signal to be turned into a VGA signal and through to my VGA only Hyundai monitor. It was the only possible way of getting HD on my monitor, as there is no HDMI port.

After a great big failure, I considered the options. I couldn’t do GTA justice and play it in shitty SD! Which is why I’m now currently using a new Samsung 20″ Monitor/TV with HD. After convincing Argos to let me have a store card, enabling me to pay off the monitor on a Buy Now Pay November deal, I’m fully ready for the next generation of gaming!

It’s amazing what lengths I’ll go to for things, isn’t it…

 

It Begins…

I was at work on Thursday, discussing the merits of having a Playstation 3 with my mate Leon. He said himself that if it was him in my situation and he wanted to get something, and had to money to do so, he’d go out and buy it. He spoke from experience, having got a Smart car the previous week. And indeed the other fella I work with, Vijay, had got himself an iPhone after i revealed to him on the Wednesday that they had gone down in price by £100. So being in the presence of these two wasn’t really going to convince me to hold on and wait before buying a PS3.

Anyway, Leon put it into my head that I should get up early on Friday and go out and buy the PS3. Me being me, I thought that was a great idea. I went home, packed up the Xbox 360 - aka The Game Scratcher! - and filled a bag full of all the games and accessories, as well as a few PSP games that I’d got bored of, and set the alarm for 8am.

Getting into Gamestation in Nottingham for half nine, and probably being their first customer, I unloaded all Xbox branded crap on them for a trade-in. I had wanted them to tell me what it was worth as cash (always lower than a trade-in price) but the guy told me cash was out of the question as the tills were empty! Nevermind, as after the girl serving me had turned on my 360 to test it, and rung through every item I had with me, I was told that the grand total of it all was worth £198! I’d only been expecting around £150, so I was quite a bit chuffed.

I chose the PS3 + Gran Turismo 5 bundle. There were others, but they all wanted to foist a shitty Blu-Ray movie on you. If - or when - I get a Blu-Ray disc, I want it to be something I do actually want to watch and not some crappy film like Beowulf or Hitman. Besides, with the money saved from my 360 trade in, I have enough to cash to get some games and movies should I want to.

The PS3 is a big black beast of a machine. The 360 was heavy, but the PS3 is wide, heavy and shiny. It also doesn’t scratch games, which gives it a +1 in my book. Playing it on my old style telly, the graphics are noticeably worse than through a HD screen, but it is wholly expected, and I doubt it’ll bother me at all once GTA 4 comes out.

The PS3 is also quiet and unassuming. The 360 was noisy, like it wanted to make sure you knew it was there at all times! To compliment the PS3, I bought a 250GB harddrive from Dabs. Being able to up the hard disk to crazy levels is a genius move, one which should mean I’ll have room for anything and everything. What Sony don’t tell you though, is that it is damn near impossible to remove the Hard Drive from the ‘caddy’ once you locate it. After half a day of unsuccesfully trying to unscrew the tiniest of screws, i just thought fuck it. I don’t need a flamin’ caddy anyway. I stuck it in without it and, after a firmware update, it works fine!

I’m having to get used to games installing whenever you put a new one in, but it isn’t like I didn’t know the PS3 would be doing these things, and it is nice to know I have a machine that won’t ruin my games.

The next big event in this young consoles life will be a game that will probably reside in the machine for months. GTA!