-A-

I thought it was average verging on poor. Not only was there absolutely nothing significant in the long-term (both in terms of plot and character development) but the episode itself was full of terrible clichés and heavy-handed devices. Vincent delivers a dead arm and a set of keys and then leads Hurley to the van and he doesn't bat an eyelid? BS. The whole childhood flashback made me cringe with the formulaic 'you make your own luck' theme and the father's departure being to blame for Hurley's eating. POOR HURLEY. I've just had enough with all the flashbacks now. They were fine as a means of establishing the characters off-island, but there's no fucking point trying to build the characters now. The only flashbacks are the ones which add something substantive, not these airy-fairy ones that have nothing to do with anything. The whole van thing was pointless and really showed how lazy the writing has become. Is Hurley saying 'if I'm not back in 3 hours, tell someone' really enough for us to believe this mysteriously-undiscovered van's more than a short run away from camp? Is Sawyer really able to drink decades-old beer? I don't really GAF, but that's another question left unanswered and it irritates me. Lost has this incredible power to swing between the good and the bad. I loved the last two episodes, and I struggled to watch this to the end. In the first season they could at least develop many storylines at once because everything was focused on the beach. Now they seem to have tunnel vision in each episode, with only fleeting glimpses of the majority of characters. Some people seem to think that this episode added to our knowledge Hurley's obsession with the 'curse.' How much of that could have been achieved through his conversations with Charlie? Probably most of it, especially the idea that you can make your own luck. Considering the contents of the last episode, this would have been the perfect time to tie all of that into Hurley's 'curse' situation. I'm not saying that the van part isn't necessary for the plot, but it felt like the flashback was put in there purely so they could make it a Hurley-centric episode, not because it had any purpose. The writers seem to have an irrational fear of advancing the same storylines and using the same characters prominently for two episodes in a row - which is a shame because Desmond would have been the perfect foil for Hurley in this episode. How much of all this was already known before this episode? The flashback didn't actually tell us *anything* new about Hurley's character, since we've already been beaten over the head with Hurley's belief in the curse and that he is to blame for his bad luck.

Heathens The pilot was good, from what I remember. Didn't get particularly excited by any of the characters, it's true, but the story itself was enjoyable.

Except the chainsaw is horribly flawed in many ways. The horrible 'run and chainsaw' bug is enough to make me hate the weapon alone, even without the 'chainsaw yourself' one. Why can't you hurt someone when they're going through the animation, but you can chainsaw them? Why can people chainsaw you when they're facing in the opposite direction (even when you're host)?

Does anyone have any tips for getting free stock video footage? I'm just looking for generic clips of people and nature to assemble a short video and don't want to rely on shitty YouTube quality videos.

No, it's not. It's called 'weapon sliding' and has something to do with going into and out of cover.

I've also seen a whole lot of people that manage to pick up weapons without pausing, which is incredibly annoying.

I have no memory of this character. Lost's many characters and storylines are clearly all aimed at making me buy the DVDs, dammit.

There's one where people can run insanely fast somehow, which someone else on my team informed me can only happen on that map. They run at almost double speed, I reckon. There's another where they can get up on top of the concrete walls of the two towers facing the boomshot. Not entirely sure what the use of that one is, but they were doing it anyway. Then the ever-fun 'run and rev your chainsaw at the same time' one, and the one where they can fire at you despite facing in another direction.

People who use glitches are starting to really annoy me. I can't even be arsed playing Gridlock ranked matches any more because of the sheer number of people using the numerous glitches.

I've probably played this game through once a year since it came out. Absolutely phenomenal, I can't wait for BioShock.

One thing that really limits my enjoyment of American football is that the players don't strike me as being particularly involved in the game. There are teams of strategists on the sidelines that control what they do, and since downs only last for 5-10 seconds, there's never really any requirement for independent thought. Obviously the quarter back is the exception, and WRs and running backs have some creative options - but I don't really have any empathy or appreciation for the work done by most of the players on the pitch. The moments of spontaneous genius that I love in football just aren't there, the flowing football from the likes of Arsenal or Argentina aren't replicated on the football pitch, it just seems like you pick a play, and every now and then something amazing might happen. That's why I respect and care about basketball more than I ever will American football.

Project Rockstar is incredibly tedious IMO. They've gone through a few versions that all seem to be the same. Might be more enjoyable if you get into the community side of it, with record labels and such, but I can never be arsed.

I quite enjoy American football, but I fell asleep during the Superbowl. The commentary and adverts drove me into submission

Basically any disco, especially 'We Are Family' - best bassline ever. EDIT: Wait ... do I mean 'We Are Family'? Which was the track sampled in a song which goes 'Hip ... hop ... the hip ... the hippity hip hop ... you don't stop poppin' ... something something'

Yeah, it's got to the point where I'm reluctant to care about any new characters or storylines, particularly things that seem incidental. I didn't care about Juliet's sister's pregnancy, nor about her ex-husband. Seeing Ethan randomly was good though, and I was prepared to give the institute director guy a bit of time since he'll probably end up being a major character.

Well, I really enjoyed that episode. It really seems like they're beginning to explain the status of the Others' camp, and their relationship with the outside world. I definitely started paying attention at the part where Carl was being conditioned - that in combination with Juliet's ability to impregnate a male lab mouse. I wonder whether there might be some issues relating to the sexes. I got that vibe from the conditioning video, and the idea of a male mother is something else to throw in that direction. I still can't quite buy the entire surgery/hostage scenario. I'm not sure if it's just heavy-handed writing from Lost or indicative of another layer of plot that we'll get to in time. I was also irritated by the scene where Kate had the walkie-talkie miraculously shot from her hand when the pursuing group wasn't even in sight. Still, there was a lot of revelation in regards the Others in that episode, and Juliet's become very interesting even if I don't particularly like her any more.

I would lead the smaller team to unparalleled success. Clearly.

For anyone interested, here is Jack Evans' Gamertag. He likes GoW and Halo 2 apparently. PWN JUIC3 SUCKA

An exclusive music video would pretty much be the best I could hope for. Gamerpics or shitty themes seem much more likely.

I don't actually know anyone that downloaded the game, to be honest. I'd imagine that the system would be the same, though.

Now, Black and White is a great game. I must get around to reinstalling it now I've got a bigger harddrive. It was so beautiful and clever and subtle, even if my beast kept going around eating people rather than rescuing them from drowning, :pinch:

In terms of literally counting down the days: System Shock 2 (PC) Black and White (PC) Halo 2 (X-Box) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360) I can actually remember getting excited about Duke Nukem Forever, but never to the point of counting days.

Both clubs have denied that bid ever happened.

Finally decided to do another distant-future game and holidayed 20 years into the future. Was interesting to see how things compared to my last game - particularly in terms of the teams in the Premiership. Last time round, there were hardly any surprising teams. This time, Hereford, Bournemouth and Bristol Rovers are all there, along with the slightly less odd ones - Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall and Preston. John Terry is managing Chelsea, just as he was last time I did this - pretty much as can be expected from RL I think. There are some really bizarre other Premiership managers though - Nigel Pearson at Arsenal, Mike Newell at Man U and Robert Kelly at Newcastle. Not to mention Lampard managing Tottenham Loads of other former players around the place in non-playing roles too. I'm managing Blackburn and have Carlos Vela, Phil Neville, Nick Barmby, Stephen Bytwater and Michael Clegg as coaches. EDIT: Also, Colin Calderwood is managing AC Milan, lol. In terms of Premiership winners, Chelsea won the title for a couple more years before a Man U dynasty took over and won four titles in a row. Man City earnt a couple of titles, along with Liverpool and West Ham, before Blackburn took over and won another four successive titles. They then faded away heavily and Newcastle and West Ham dominated for 5 years. The Hammers have odds of 2-to-1 to win the title, with Newcastle closest at 12-to-1. Last time round, I found the centre backs seemed to be dominating the average rating charts, but that's not the case this time which I'm pleased about. I can only guess that it was something to do with the mis-balance of technical stats before the patch. Things seem to be fine on that front this time round. Internationally, there don't seem to be that many really experienced international players any more, with most of the biggest teams having something of a rotation policy. Think this must be something to do with the regen system producing fewer stand-out players, because Vela earnt 172 caps before he retired. I find games really exciting when you don't know anything about the players and don't have any preconceptions from real life. Not being able to rely on the same players I sign over and over again is good fun too. I play LLM and obscure leagues every now and then, but I still prefer being able to use decent transfer budgets and compete in the Champions League.