We all like to label things, now come on don't be shy, you do too just admit it and lets face it, why not? It's a useful system for quickly identifying things so we can decide whether we will or will not like stuff. Perfectly reasonable. I mean I for one like cars, I like car racing, I like games with cars in so on the whole I'm a car kind of guy. But there it is, right there, did you see it? I'll write it again just in case, "on the whole I'm a car kind of guy". How about that time? Just because I'm in to my auto-mobiles doesn't mean I like EVERYTHING about ALL of them and there's where the pigeon holing thing stops working, because there's just no getting around the fact that there are things we just don't like and vice versa.
The real problem is that because of our need to speed up figuring out what we are going to enjoy we have a tendency to become blinkered about things and this can make us miss out on some real gems, even going so far as to choose things we don't like because they fit our generic brackets of taste.
So what am I saying? Simply put, keep an open mind. Maybe you dislike dance music, that's fine but don't automatically assume that you hate ALL dance music, judge everything on its on merit.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Friday, 12 November 2010
The countdown begins again
So the new release date for Gran Turismo 5 has been announced and I can start looking forward to 24th November. I've been following the series since the first one and that one was the deciding factor for purchasing the original Playstation. As a fan of racing games I can honestly say the only thing that comes close is Forza for the Xbox.
One of the insults I often throw at games like FIFA soccer, Madden football, Tiger Woods golf and their ilk is that they're exactly the same game but with another unit added to the end of the name. While the same statement can be made for GT somehow it doesn't seem to bother me as much and I can't help but feed my addiction for faced paced racing simulation.
The only trouble I have with the GT games is that Polyphony Digital seem to be perfectionists and the release dates for these things keep getting further and further away with each iteration. I preordered GT4 when it was announced and in the end there was over a year between my initial pre-order and the eventual release date, had I done the same this time round GT5 would have blown that record out of the water.
With each announced delay has come the statement that they're working on trying to make the game perfect for release day. While this does nothing to help my withdrawal symptoms I can at least take heart in the knowledge that unlike other games which have been released with entire colonies of bugs, GT5 should be the gilt coated platinum that I'm hoping it will be. The thing is though, with them giving it the Goldilocks treatment if there's even a small problem on release day they'll look very foolish indeed given all the time they've spent on it and lets face it, in the gaming world, nothing is ever perfect from day one.
On the whole though, I'd rather spend extra time waiting for a highly polished game than suffer through the faults while they rush out a patch to fix the big problems and then end up introducing more.
One of the insults I often throw at games like FIFA soccer, Madden football, Tiger Woods golf and their ilk is that they're exactly the same game but with another unit added to the end of the name. While the same statement can be made for GT somehow it doesn't seem to bother me as much and I can't help but feed my addiction for faced paced racing simulation.
The only trouble I have with the GT games is that Polyphony Digital seem to be perfectionists and the release dates for these things keep getting further and further away with each iteration. I preordered GT4 when it was announced and in the end there was over a year between my initial pre-order and the eventual release date, had I done the same this time round GT5 would have blown that record out of the water.
With each announced delay has come the statement that they're working on trying to make the game perfect for release day. While this does nothing to help my withdrawal symptoms I can at least take heart in the knowledge that unlike other games which have been released with entire colonies of bugs, GT5 should be the gilt coated platinum that I'm hoping it will be. The thing is though, with them giving it the Goldilocks treatment if there's even a small problem on release day they'll look very foolish indeed given all the time they've spent on it and lets face it, in the gaming world, nothing is ever perfect from day one.
On the whole though, I'd rather spend extra time waiting for a highly polished game than suffer through the faults while they rush out a patch to fix the big problems and then end up introducing more.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Why weigh?
Like most people with a desk job in IT and a love of gaming/movies/music I have a fairly sedentary life and rather more weight than I'd like. Well ok, I have to walk in to the server halls on a regular basis and out to the shops to buy my lunch but on the whole I sit around a lot. Because of this in the last couple of months I've once again tried to get back in to doing exercise. This time it's Zumba, an exercise regime based on Latin dance movements.
I've tried a few things in the past and quickly learned that a gym membership is just not for me, but this dancing thing seems to be good fun.
This time however it's lead me to consider, why do we use weighing scales to define whether our training program is working? When I think about it, I'm not actually trying to lose weight as such, what I really want is a more pleasing figure. Ok so weight is definitely involved I agree, but if the result can be corrupted by having eaten recently, water retention, wearing or not wearing clothes, recent salt intake and even going to the toilet it becomes easy to see why people can get so disheartened but those fluctuating numbers on the bathroom scales, not to mention the never ending concern of if your scales are properly calibrated.
So stuff weighing yourself, it can't be trusted and if we're perfectly honest, what I really care about are do I like the way I look in the mirror, can I touch my toes and can I run up the stairs without being out of breath and sweating like a pig.
I've tried a few things in the past and quickly learned that a gym membership is just not for me, but this dancing thing seems to be good fun.
This time however it's lead me to consider, why do we use weighing scales to define whether our training program is working? When I think about it, I'm not actually trying to lose weight as such, what I really want is a more pleasing figure. Ok so weight is definitely involved I agree, but if the result can be corrupted by having eaten recently, water retention, wearing or not wearing clothes, recent salt intake and even going to the toilet it becomes easy to see why people can get so disheartened but those fluctuating numbers on the bathroom scales, not to mention the never ending concern of if your scales are properly calibrated.
So stuff weighing yourself, it can't be trusted and if we're perfectly honest, what I really care about are do I like the way I look in the mirror, can I touch my toes and can I run up the stairs without being out of breath and sweating like a pig.
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