DisKinected.....

"The road may end, but you can make a 'U' turn." - Minu-Tshyeto K. Bidzimou

 As many of you are aware last week Microsoft announced that they will be launching an Xbox One WITHOUT the Kinect on the 9th of June. Now you would think that the press conference which is also to be held on the same day as the launch, would be the ideal place to announce  a Kinect-less Xbox One, especially when the retail sales figures are not as impressive as Microsoft expected, so much so that for obvious reasons ie no Kinect, the new Xbox One will be reduced in price. So I asked myself why announce it now? In my opinion there are three answers to this question:

• So that marketing can deal with the flak that Microsoft will be receiving online via social media etc  regarding this complete 180 degree u-turn in policy.....again! (Remember the DRM u-turn just after they announced the use of DRM at last years E3?!)
•  They also announced it now so that the controversy surrounding this decision will have blown away on the digital wind by the time E3 rolls around, therefore not overshadowing the expected multiple game announcements.
• To tie in with said game announcements, hedging their bets on predicted future unit sales based upon which games we the consumer want to play, primarily focussing on exclusive titles like Xbox flagship series HALO.

They, in my opinion, need to focus on making the aforementioned exclusives for the Xbox One only, as that has been the biggest mistake by they've made, publishing key exclusive titles on both the Xbox One and the 360, making loyal 360 owners say to themselves "Well I don't need to upgrade to play this key Microsoft  game, it will be out on my console soon!" An example of this would be Titanfall.

 However according to Microsoft's Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehdi, "...People have been more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PS3, so in that respect people have less of a need to upgrade...." He made that statement in an interview with Forbes magazine.
What that statement implies is that only PS3 owners upgraded to the PS4, when this is patently untrue! I myself know on a personal level at least four people who went from Xbox 360 to the PS4, as well as a number of followers on Twitter who did the same.

It also ignores the fact that many first time console gamers would have got the PS4 for Christmas last year! In my opinion, Microsoft's decision to remove Kinect is a desperation move designed to boost the ailing sales of it's much vaunted flagship next-gen console.      

R-Type Dimensions blasts onto PS3 this month

Hi Blog readers, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I hope everyone is having a splendid week thus far, and that you all had an awesome weekend. May is one of my favorite months. It starts off early with Star Wars “May the 4th” festivities, and then jumps immediately into Cinco de Mayo, without a break in between the two days. It’s like one big 48-hour celebration, and I love it!

 But now that the party is over you may find yourselves asking “well, what else do we have to look forward to this month?” Oh, I don’t know… how about Tozai Games bringing R-Type Dimensions to PlayStation Store for PS3 on 21st May! Yup, that’s right, the PS3 shoot ‘em up library is about to explode with not only one, but two fully-remastered R-Type games with new HD graphics, music, and features!

Tozai is going at this with their lasers-a’-blazing, bringing both R-Type and R-Type II together as R-Type Dimensions. Players will be getting R-Type, featuring all eight original R-Type levels, and R-Type II, featuring all six original levels. But wait, hold the phones, there’s more! Tozai isn’t just releasing some dusty old arcade ports, no way! They are giving this legendary series the special treatment it so rightfully deserves!


View the Original article

Sportsfriends brings local multiplayer madness to PS3 & PS4

Everything you need to know about the off-the-wall sports compilation:

Sony PlayStation's local multiplayer compendium Sportsfriends is live on PlayStation Store! It's available as a digital download on both PS4 and PS3 for £11.99/€13.99/$20.15.

 And if you purchase Sportsfriends on PS3, you’ll also be entitled to download the PS4 version for free.
Four full-sized games in one!
Oh man unrelated, holy cow sportsfriends has an unbelievable amt. of content as well as secrets. It’s sort of freaking me out!

View the Original article

Mario Kart vs F1Race Stars

OK, I haven't wrote on here for ages, so please bear with me!

This post is going to be a comparison between two console games, one is a classic and the other is brand new, but has the potential to be a classic.

OK, so Mario Kart has 3 classes for your Kart 50, 100 & 150cc, plus it has the awesome mirror mode.. Well F1 Race Stars has essentially the same amount of classes, the only difference being that in F1 the numbers are larger! This is to give  the Karts the  appearance of  being Formula class racers, but essentially both games are the same as each other when it comes to classes.

Now we come to power-ups....hmmmm Codemasters  appear to have been playing loads of Kario Mart, (deliberate misspellings there folks!) Prior to coding (bad pun intended) F1 as the power ups are the basically the same, both have turbo boost, both have a feature that fires you forward like a rocket, (Bullet Bill in Mario Kart and a NOS canister in F1)

Both have a forward firing seeking missile, both have a rebounding missile (green shell/yellow bubble). An attack that slows the leader right down, an attack on everyone in front of you (lightning in Mario Kart and a rain storm in F1), etc. Once played you will realize that each of the power ups in F1 is the same as a power up in Mario Kart.

Both games have plenty of course choices too, but instead of the standard 4 races per championship F1 starts with 2 and progressively adds more plus you also get different championship game modes, I feel that in this category F1 just shades it because of the other game mode inclusions in the career/championship mode. I know shocking isn't it!

F1s numerous game modes can be played online too, but I think Mario Kart is more fun online because its just straight up races against unknown people or your friends. And while the same holds true for F1 what let's it down is the huge size of the races, and online racing can be torture at times, trust me I know, I have both Gran Turismo and Forza 4 so I know what of I speak! And the torture is more frustrating in games with huge courses as they take longer to finish. And this may lead to a bad online experience, please note I said may, this is not to say it would frustrate everyone.

F1s big thing though is the KERS corner boost. This can be the difference between winning and losing and is something that should be included in all Kart games, its a bit like Mario Karts drift boost, and once you master it it becomes the light at the end of the tunnel if your sitting at 5th and going in to the last corner.

Sadly F1 is let down because it doesn't have an equivalent to Rainbow Road..I love both games but I would say Mario Kart shades it as the better game, but maybe F1s DLC will change that, will have to wait and see.....

I'm back!

Well folks Papachi has to apologize, you see I have not had the time to blog for ages, what with it being the summer holidays and all that! However this is a wee message just to say that I am back, blogging on a regular basis.....by regular I mean every couple of days......watch this space......

Work completed

Well campers, that's my house no longer infested by workies. All the work is now finished and I must say both the bathroom and kitchen look splendid, which I suppose was the whole point!

However, it is not without its drawbacks. For one, my wife had to take abuse off of an old electrician, who promptly got thrown out the house by me. We had to stay overnight in a hotel, which was truly inconvenient!

More importantly, it is going to take about two or three weeks to sort out the mess of boxes that contain all of our stuff (clothes)!

Now I don't know about you, but that might be the worst part of all, the re-tidying! There are things packed up which don't need un-packed, but due to a lack of storage they will have to be, and this means that the house will be recluttered, again!

And that is how it stands today, house needing sorted, but we cant tidy up, and the council are giving us a new ceiling tomorrow, so we have to empty the living room tonight, go team us.....

Are you enlightened?

You must be asking yourself "Twice in one day Papachi! What did we do to deserve this?" The answer dear friends is nothing! This post is the result of a conversation I had, which led me to do some more research on enlightenment, and an organisation whose very name suggests enlightenment, i am of course talking about the Illuminati.

Now I am a sensible man with no common sense, and this years ago led me to believe in many conspiracy theories, until I worked out how to synthesise  information, in much the same way as a historian does. This in turn led me down a path of discovery, which concluded with me realising that 99% of all conspiracy theories are hokum!

Especially in regards to the aforementioned organisation The Illuminati. Or more correctly The Bavarian Illuminati. This organisation were formed with just five members initially on the first of May 1776 by a university professor called Adam Weishaupt, in Inglostadt Upper Bavaria. Weishaupt was the first lay professor of canon law at the University of Inglostadt.

The internal structure of Weishaupt's Order of the Illuminati was based on the Freemasons, and drew in members from the Freemasons as well as drawing in forward thinking teachers and politicians as well as many influential members of the intelligenstia. These people took an oath of secrecy and obediance to their superiors. They were seperated into three distinct groups, in turn each group had several degrees of membership. Its membership grew to 2000 members in ten years after its formation. A council called the Aeropagus led the group.

In 1785 the ruler of Bavaria banned all secret societies, this was a serious blow to the Illuminati, as was the church condemning them as being incompatible with the Catholic Church, these incidents as well as internal wranglings were the cause of the group to be disbanded.

All these men wanted to do was reform society and advance knowledge, and they would meet to discuss this, as would other groups at the time, as it was the Age of Enlightenment/Reason. They were not a group who plotted world domination, but they were progressive and forward in their thinking. Social change would come with more people becoming enlightened, and realising that things had to change at that time, socially, politically and scientifically.

Now me, I feel as if I am progressive in my thinking, and I realise that social change is coming soon, does this make me a modern day Illuminatus? Does it make you an Illuminatus if you are progressive and forward thinking? I like to think so and I think you would too, as you would be enlightened!

Do they still exist today? Maybe, but remember they were disbanded. Are they planning world wide domination? No. The only NWO I have heard of is on wrestling shows!

I am an Illuminatus, are you?

Workies, workies everywhere

Well continuing my series on workies that's my bathroom and kitchen fitted.

And I must say a bank holiday does much to adjust attitudes, as the workies who fitted them could not have been any nicer.

They were that nice that they actually gave us the fittings for a dish washer, when they weren't meant to!

Not much more to say except that the only complaint was that my water was off for most of the day. But that was understandable!

Well I'm off to wait for the tiler won't that be fun!?

Evil electricians being douchebags!

Well folks day 5 of the work being done on my house and they send me an electrician who gave my wife a mouthful! You see we weren't told about an electrician coming today only the plasterer. So when my wife said to the electrician that we didn't know he was coming she was not expecting a torrent of expletives from a bitter and twisted fat, degenerate work ie! Needless to say I was not happy about this! And promptly got in his face about it!

After he refused to leave, I went looking for his supervisor, not finding him, I found one of his colleagues and asked him to get him out my house, cos if I did it he would have been leaving by the verandah! What a total douchebag he was.

So if you've been following my adventures with workies you will be able to know that in answer to my question from yesterday, I have already had to shout at one person today, and as I await the plasterer returning from lunch it will end up being two, probably......

That's all for now peeps, I will see you on the Dark Side, and remember, May the 4th be with you.....

Voting: A comparison

You may find this a strange post people,as it's not my usual witty digressions on workies! Oh no you exclaim, what could it be Papachi, what could it be? Well this is about two different experiences at the voting booth tonight. One is mine the other is an exceptionally good friend of mine's!

When my friend, (Who shall remain nameless) went to vote, he filled in his numbers, (No X's anymore!) Folded his slip and went to put it in the box, when to his shocked and stunned surprise one of the people manning to tables opened his voting slip, read it and posted it themselves! Where he voted did not have a Chief electoral officer present, or if that's not the right term, just anyone with some sort of authority!

However my experience was wholly different! Everything was explained to me, even to the paper being turned over so no one could read it! And imagine my surprise when I was informed that a figure of authority was there too! So no one read my voting slip, and I posted my own ballot paper, without anyone being able to read it at all!

However, I think the new system is just to make it easier for the people who count the votes! The thing is that everything that happened to my friend was a blatant disregard of all electoral process and that has me livid! It's supposed to be a SECRET vote, and my friends vote was in no way SECRET, and his vote is now a spoiled vote. So he has been denied his right to vote by someone who has no right to look at his paper! And that is not on! Not on at all!

OK rant over be back soon