Archive for September, 2010
Nintendo 3DS is full of surprises, just not in time for christmas
02 years ago
The much talked about Nintendo 3DS press conference was finally held over in Japan in the early hours of this morning UK time (29th September 2010).
The good news… Ninty’s new little 3D gem is packed full of joy and wonder.
The bad news… It looks like us folk in the UK will have to wait until March 2011 to get our hands on one.
Initially launching in 2 colours (black or blue) on February 26th 2011 in the Far East at a price of ¥25,000, which will probably translate to a £199 price tag over here.
The new portable also features a Mii character system based on the original Wii version but with added camera support. A variety of games featuring your Mii’s will no doubt follow.
Another exciting feature is the introduction of a DS virtual console, again much like the Wii’s version but with the ability to download and play older Gameboy and Gameboy Advanced classics.
For me though the biggest seller is still the unbelievable amount of top notch games set to launch with the 3DS, all with stunning graphics and in glorious 3D to boot.
Have a peek at the video showreel below to see what I mean, It’s guaranteed to make you long even more for a Christmas time release date – humbug!
Nintendo and Sony battle it out once more
02 years ago
Only a week to go folks and we’ll finally know all the details of Nintendo’s latest (and maybe greatest) handheld to date. Will we get our hands on it in the UK before Christmas? Fingers crossed but to tantalise you just a little bit more over the next 7 days the good folks over at IGN have leaked what they believe will be the power spec of the new 3D beastie…
• 1.5GB of flash memory
• 64MB of RAM
• Two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs
• 133MHz GPU
• 4MB of dedicated VRAM
It may not mean much to you, but for a handheld machine it’s all very impressive, if true. Early iPhone and iPod Touch’s used only one ARM11 CPU, the 3DS with its additional dedicated VRAM and RAM will pack a hefty punch. Maybe not the Xbox 360 rivaling graphics that some were hoping for but on a screen the size of the 3DS it should produce slightly better graphics than the Wii and all in glorious 3D without the need for glasses.
Meanwhile not to be outdone by their rivals the first real news of a sequel to the Sony PSP (dubbed the PSP2) have started to emerge. The pictures above show what some believe to be the next generation PSP, due for release sometime 2011 -2012. With its slide out controllers it certainly looks impressive albeit pretty much like the original (leaving me to believe these pics are actually fake). One thing for sure it’s bound to be more powerful than the 3DS when it’s finally released, Sony will be desperate to make that the case.
The problem Sony face though is one of history repeating itself. The Nintendo DS destroyed the original PSP because of serval key factors; it was first to hit the shops, it had a unique selling point (the touch screen), it managed to release a big catalogue of games that suited all tastes (the PSP was too slow to realise the potential of the casual gamer market), finally and most importantly it was sold at the right price.
Whilst we still don’t know all the facts regarding price and gaming catalogue, Nintendo is definitely ahead of Sony on release date and unique selling point. Can Sony pull something magical out of their hats this time to rival Nintendo’s 3D abilities?
It’s all very exciting and we should know at least half the full story next Wednesday 29th September 2010 at the Nintendo 3DS Press Conference.
Manchester United Vs Liverpool » Football doesn’t get bigger than this
02 years ago
by Dicki Ware
in Football
Forget your London, Glasgow, Milan, even Liverpool and Manchester derbies. For me the biggest games of the season are always those played out between Manchester United and Liverpool.
Always tight, always hard fought, never predictable and certainly never dull, these 2 footballing power houses battle it out once more at Old Trafford this afternoon.
This year match as ever will throw up many a debate and argument in the pubs accross Britain over the weekend. With Rooney and Torres both struggling to find any kind of form, the match could be won by those 2 midfleid stalwarts or Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes. Scholes in particular has had a fantastic start to the season and finally looks like he’s got over the vision issues which have caused him so many problems over the last couple of years. Gerrard’s start hasn’t been fantasic for Liverpool but you can never write him off in a big game like this one. If he can carry over his reccent England form into this match the United midfield wil struggle to cope.
Outside of this match though, problems are strirring for both clubs. A new crop of football upstarts threaten both clubs historic trophy cabinets and they come with the most important factor in todays modern game – bags of money. United and Liverpool might be far and away the most successful teams in history with their 18 top flight Championship a piece but if they’re not careful Chelsea (and dare I say it Manchester City) will start to chip away at those facts and figures over the next couple of decades.
How can they compete in the long term? The Glazer’s took Manchester United, the richest club in the world and saddled them with the most unimaginable debt almost over night. The situation in Liverpool when Hicks and Gillet purchased the club may have started off as love affair but it quickly turned sour when despite all their promises the Americans revealed a total lack of funds and went on to put Liverpool in a simular debt crisis to United’s. Whilst the Old Trafford outfit continue to compete at the moment, one has to fear for the longterm, especially once Fergie does the unthinkable and finally retires. Unless things change at the top for both clubs the trophy cabinets could soon run dry.
One thing is for sure, depite these new big time charlies coming along, they’ll never match the United Vs Liverpool game for sheer drama and passion that we’ll hopefully see for 90 minutes later today and long may that continue.
Frackin Cool predication » Manchester United 3 – Liverpool 1
The Charlatans : Who We Touch : Album Review
02 years ago
by Dicki Ware
in Music
Yes they’re back again, 20 years after their debut album ‘Some Friendly’ and 14 years after their Britpop heyday, its sometimes easy to take The Charlatans for granted. Every couple a years a new release followed by a quick tour around the countries smaller sized music venues, never really making a mark on the nations consiousness. Maybe they’re happy to carry on like this, a real shame really as despite their recent struggles to dint the charts Tim Burgess and co are still capable of creating great music as ‘Who We Touch’, their 11th studio album fully demonstrates.
A mixed bag of styles that offers something for every Charlatans fan, no matter which era is your particular fave. ‘Love is Ending’ and ‘My Foolish Pride’ are instant classics while ‘Your Pure Sure’ (my current favourite) sounds like an outtake from ‘Us And Us Only’. Moving on through the album we hit several tracks that are more of this Millenniums Charlatans before hitting the Pink Floyd inspired ‘Oh!” and the shockingly bizarre finale bonus track ‘I Sing The Body Eclectic’ featuring Penny Rimbaud on lead vocals, a great one off track but leave the singing to Tim in future Penny.
The last few years have seen the boys trying out various different styles and themes for their LPs. I didn’t really get the reggae vibe on Simpatico, whilst the New Order influenced ‘You Cross My Path’ was great at the time but listening back now its hard to pick out any of the classic Charlatans moments that this new album captures. In a nut shell ‘Who we Touch’ is the best album they’ve created since the Holy Trinity line up of ‘Up to our Hips’, ‘The Charlatans’ and ‘Telling Stories’.
Shockingly the album only debuted at number 21, not really good enough but considering the lack of radio airlplay they now get its understandable. A problem that the ‘Manics’ Nicky Wire has also recently commented on, Its a crying shame and something needs to be done. Radio 1 might be for the kids but surely Radio 2 could make more of an effort to get these great bands that still have plenty to offer more play-time. Maybe at the expense of Katie Melua or some other modern muck.
Frackin Cool album review : 4 STARS (out of 5)
The xx take the Mercury
02 years ago
by Dan Belcher
in Music
Despite my colleagues prediction that Mumford and Sons would easily walk this years Mercury Music Prize 2010, the actual award went to The xx for their debut album ‘xx’.
Kudos to them, the album is extremely good and the trio who all hail from London faced some very stiff competition from some very big names.
They picked up the £20,000 winners cheque from host Jools Holland last night (7th September 2010) at the end of a thrill packed show in which all the nominees performed, kicking off with fellow contender Paul Weller.
It will now be interesting to see if The xx can kick on from here and make it big or just fade into obscurity as so many Mercury Prize winners have done before.
Get ready for the Nintendo Wii2
02 years ago
Nintendo fans will be pleased to hear the first murmurings of the successor to their hugely popular Wii console are finally emerging.
Yes the Wii2 is now well into development in a secret lab at Nintys headquarters over in Japan. No one yet knows when, how much or even what its capabailities might be but in a recent interview one of Nintendo’s top dogs Yoshio Sakimoto has squeaked the first few tantalising noises.
At Nintendo we always have the obligation to surprise users with a new game console. We have never done what others have. We prefer to create something new that catches attention, and I think this will continue this time as well. Surely the new Nintendo machine will leave you all with your mouth open.
Yoshio Sakimoto
So there you have it, what it means we have no idea but get ready to open your mouths!
All very exciting but Nintendo really need to get their act together and release it asap. Despite still being the number 1 seller in this generations console war, the Wii’s lead is now being eroded by the infinately more powerful Xbox360 and Playstation 3. Unfortunatley I can’t see it being released any earlier than Christmas 2012, with maybe the first sneek peeks at the E3 Expo next summer. Will that be too late for Nintendo to stay ahead of the game? Time will tell.
To keep us going meantime however is the exciting prospect of the Nintendo press conference at the end of this month (September 29th 2011), where hopefully they’ll tell us all the news we want to hear – the release of the new Nintendo 3DS before Christmas in the UK.
Sunday Bloody Sunday » Alan Partridge returns
02 years ago
by Dicki Ware
in TV
Okay, it’s Sunday, you’ve read the papers, washed the car and you think to yourself ‘Sunday bloody Sunday!’
If you feel like Alan, you’ll be please to hear he’s all set to make yet another comeback to alleviate your 7th day boredom, staring in 10 mini episodes available only on the internet.
But as each episode is only 12 minutes long it won’t really whet Partridge fans appetites, still I suppose its better than nothing.
Created solely for Fosters lager, they must have paid Partridge creator Steve Coogan an awful lot of money to ditch Alan’s favourite pint of bitter with a Baileys chaser.
Look out for the new material coming this Autumn 2010, hopefully if successful the much talked about movie might finally get the green light.
ALAN PARTRIDGE’S BEST LINES…
1 Smell my cheese!
2 You threw a monkey into the sea?
3 You’re 22 years old and you’re spending your Saturdays in bed with a girl – you’re wasting your life!
Any other classics, post them in the comments box below…
Apple in sexy new iPods shocker
02 years ago
As reported here last week. Apple have announced their new music and media lineup for the next 12 months.
A revamped iPod Touch, a totally new iPod Nano and the much anticipated re-imagining of the Apple TV were all unveiled by Steve Jobs at the Apple press conference in San Francisco yesterday (1st September 2010).
The iPod Touch looks slick and now comes with the same Retina display screen boasted by the iPhone 4. In fact with the addition of FaceTime and a HD video camera, it’s now pretty much an iPhone 4 without the phone.
The all new iPod Nano has had a complete makeover, now squat and square in size, the new touch screen covers the entire frontage. A great new design Mr Jobs and the added FM radio is a plus, but the removal of video playback is a backward step for me.
Finally we move onto the Apple TV (looks like they decided against the iTV renaming). Now encased in a sexy little black box design, so impressively small it will fit in the palm of your hand. As I first predicted months ago, this new incarnation has now dropped its internal hard drive, relying solely on live streaming from your home computers iTunes account. You can now no longer purchase films or TV shows direct from the Apple TV itself. The only option is to rent them, or purchase content on your computer and then stream it over to the Apple TV.
Still no 1080p resolution and no word yet whether the UK version will include a version of the US Netflix feature, where Netflix subscribers (a bit like LoveFilm over here) can instantly download films for no extra cost.
Another big problem at the moment for us folks in the UK is we can’t rent the TV shows yet, hindering the plan to rival Sky and Virgin Media, so unless Apple get together with the TV networks pretty quickly, this new box could die a death even quicker than its older brother.
All in all, another range of must have Apple gadgets, but like always with Apple there seems to be more questions than answers.
The Stig is revealed…
02 years ago
by Dicki Ware
in TV
The BBC has today (1st September 2010) lost it’s attempt to block the release of a book that will reveal the real identity of The Stig from BBC2s Top Gear programme.
The High Court ruling is bad news for the BBC, who no doubt will have loads of Stig merchandising lined up to be released over the next few months to cash in on the busy Christmas shopping period.
The main selling point of The Stig was his anonymity, now that that has gone, the show might have to create a new character. No easy feat, over the last few years ratings have gone through the roof, with The Stig as an essential part of the shows charm.
This has been on the cards for quite a while though and anyone with a desire to know who was underneath the helmet only needed a few minutes searching Google to find out.
For those of you who’ve been under a rock during the summer and can’t be bothered to buy his book, The Stig is actually racing driver ‘Ben Collins’, not the coolest of names so you can see why The Stig came about.
