Telling it like it is

Merry Christmas, from the TSA. Still think they're at the airport for security? Story: TSA miss loaded gun in passenger's carry on. Detection failure rate is great than 70%

In the last couple of weeks I've bought a couple of new games for my PS3, both of which have been a massive letdown. Gran Turismo 5 - hailed as the saviour of the PS3, the pinnacle of driving games, turns out to be a prettier-looking Gran Turismo 2. Like 3 and 4 before it, the AI is box-of-rocks stupid and there's no crash damage. Well - there sort of is but it's so slight that it's useless. You can just ram other cars off the road and ride the crash barrier around long corners and always win - with no penalty. No damage to your car either visibly or mechanically. So I put that up for re-sale on Amazon a couple of days ago and it sold within 45 minutes of me listing it. The other game is the latest Call Of Duty title - Black Ops. Or Boll-Ocks as it's rapidly becoming known. This is a complete joke. The single player game is 5 hours long at best, and the multiplayer is plagued with so many crashes, bugs and connection errors that it's essentially useless. I'...

Regarding my previous blog post

Back in the summer, there was an accident on one of the roads I drive along on my commute. A car had gone through a brick wall at the side of a house, leaving a big hole in it. The wall is a tall one - 3m or so - so it was a true hole - the top didn't collapse. It's been like that for ages and I noticed today that the homeowners have decided to accentuate the positive nature of their new hole : there are two illuminated Christmas Deer in it now, and the hole itself is lined with Christmas lights. If I can get a photo, I will - it made me laugh so hard when I saw it I nearly crashed my own car this morning.

I'll say this for Microsoft - they're wiley about building products that will make a lot of money for no good reason. I had a chance to play with a Kinect at BestBuy this morning and frankly I can't see the point in it. I mean it's clever - sure - but what is the point ? It will be useless for playing anything other than yoga or dance games and you look (and feel) like a total retard when you're trying to play a racing game. You have to stand there with your hands out in front of you as if you're holding a steering wheel. The rotational tracking for steering is terrible, and there's awful lag and latency between you doing something and the Kinect cameras picking it up. I can't imagine trying to play something like Call Of Duty with a Kinect. But - and this I suspect is the point - Microsoft have created something here that has a massive x-factor. Kids and parents are going to want it, and want it now. It will be huge for Christmas, but by February, on...