(no subject)

Another weekend has rushed past; jenova_red came up on Friday with plans to sort out the old computers. I got her from the station, and we took advantage of the late-opening Asda in Carlisle (sudden realisation - Carlisle is in England. BOOZE AFTER 10pm!), and bought some supplies - the usual; Pretzels, wine, Playstation 3, Tiramisu, lantern fruit, milk and bread. Further proof - if it were needed - that two computer geeks should not be allowed to shop unsupervised. Of course, the purchase of the shiny new console meant we had to choose a game - I think it says a lot for the launch selection that we got Need For Speed: Carbon.

It's a good game, but isn't the sort of killer title that you expect and not PS3 exclusive. Much, much nicer to play than the Wii version, and I'm somewhat of the opinion that hardcore gamers really need to have a PS3 or X360 and a Wii.

Fortunately, the PS3 is supported by a neat online setup - demos of games, some small games (Lemmings for £3.49, for example), the hypnotic "flOw" game... all provide additional gaming. Most telling; the MotorStorm Online game didn't look very appealing in the store, but the one-level, 4 vehicle playable demo shows it to actually be quite a lot of fun. We made the most use out of the inexpensive download of "Tekken" when we went and got a second controller (which lacks a USB cable!?!). The free demos are playable, and Motorstorm has been played loads of times.

(For example, today I downloaded the demo of Ridge Racer 7 - the launch title evolution of Sony COO Kaz Hirai's preferred method of making a fool of himself demoing on the PSP (Ridge Racer! Riiiiidge Raceerrr!" - it got half a play, then deleted right away).

Saturday we went to Glasgow to meet siani_hedgehog, jezebel_z and aidan_skinner, who brought snork_maiden whom we hadn't met before. Dinner in the Thirteenth Note was pleasant as ever with much enthusiastic discussion about deathboy's incoming spawn, anal sex, geeking and calling my One-Per-Desk to hear the rude message, and we had a nice drive up - we ran snork_maiden home to Edinburgh whilst everone else went to some club night or other and got home a bit late.

Sunday saw more playing of PS3, some tidying, and the arrival home of siani_hedgehog - tired and pleased to be presented with dinner.

Monday saw the death of my ICL One Per Desk :(

Expect more babbling about the Playstation 3 as I dig into the ability to run alternative OS as provided by Sony (various flavours of Linux have been released) and get more games - but now it's time to settle in with a closed magazine, some stuff taken to the dump, dinner on the way

(no subject)

A quick comment to all the eBay sellers who bought PS3s in bulk to list at a large markup:

Haa-haa! (fx: Nelson-esque point and laugh).

(I was amused by the "4 for £2,500 in hand now!" bulk offer, and horrified that someone allegedly paid £700 for one; I expect they didn't really).

Of course, this is no reflection on the console's quality/ability or even market appeal. It's more so that Sony didn't release the console just before Christmas and make a handful available, but instead made sure there were more than enough consoles to meet demand.