Telling it like it is

If you're lucky enough to work for a company that doesn't do trade shows, you won't really know what the trade show grind is. If you've been to a trade show, thank your lucky stars if it wasn't CES - the consumer electronics show. It's the biggest electronics trade show in the world and to say 'big' really doesn't do it justice. We just finished day 1 of pounding the floor, fortunately as visitors rather than vendors, and it's unlike any other show you could imagine. Panasonic and Samsung have battleship-sized exhibits here. There are thousands of other vendors too from the electronics giants right down to the startups that have basically bankrupted themselves to get a booth here in the hope of scoring their big break. It's an experience, that's for sure. Chris (from my NerdPhone) www.carbibles.com www.chris-longhurst.com

You'll know from reading this blog that I thought Sony and Polyphony did an appalling job with Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. It was so bad that I've since actually gone out and bought an Xbox360 just so I could play Forza Motorsport 3 instead. And let me tell you it was worth every cent. If you're frustrated with the abject failure of Gran Turismo 5, I urge you to do the same. Let me explain. The two biggest flaws in GT5 are the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks AI (which incidentally doesn't get any better as your driver experience level climbs), and the comically stupid "crash damage" (which also doesn't get any better as the game progresses). In Forza 3, the crash damage can be set to off, cosmetic, or full. Cosmetic has no effect other than ruining how the car looks. Full damage means that you get heavily punished for driving like a dick. Radiators leak, engines and transmissions get broken, suspension collapses, steering pulls one way or the other - it's a jo...