RIP George Best / Play fucked up

Even Legends don't live forever. One of football's (Or Soccer for you annoying Yanks) all time greats died on Friday. He had problems with alcohol and it finally caught up with him. As a Man Utd fan, despite being too young to actually see him play, I consider him one of the teams great legends.

I would also like to personally thank and show eternal respect to all but Leeds United fans. Your support for George Best despite only playing for Man Utd has been nothing short of amazing.

There's another Red Devil amongst the angels in Heaven. RIP George Best

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I would also like to express my annoyance at Play.com. Now usually they are amazing for Pre-orders, but I'm still waiting for my Mario Kart and Dongle. Instead of Shipping the game two days early so it arrives on release, I'm having to wait until 3 days after release (I hope) to play a title I'm begging to play.

Please don't fuck up like this again Play.

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Art Update:

Speaking of death, I did a "goodbye to CUBE" pic which is up on my DA.

Fic Update

Well not really an update but there's a new Sonic Overview and Full fics of Eclipsed, Deep Pressure and Two Tribes up on my profile. You may have to wait 24 hours for these to appear.

Shadow and Rush

I said I'd post opinions on them and here they are. Keep in mind they are only first impressions (well a bit more a review for Rush)

Shadow the Hedgehog:

This is a game that if you expect a lot you'll be disappointed, Expect little and you'll be surprised.

At first you'll hate it's loose feel. You have almost no control over Shadow and the slightest jolt in any direction sends him flying full speed. You can't target enemies despite needing to only hit some to complete certain missions. The game offers no multiple routes during the levels and the whole game gives an average impression.

But the more you play the more you can lost past it's noticable flaws. The Good/Bad system is quite well done. The game may be short but it needs to be done ten times before you can get the real ending. Plot is confusing at times and I suspect it'll make more sense once I've done everything.

Levels may be restrictive but it has a lot of freedom. You can choose to use guns or just Shadow's natural abilties. You can choose to use Vehicles or just run ahead. You can choose to kill or go straight for the goal.

The Level music is pretty meh! but the visuals can simply make you jaw drop. The Cyberspace levels look amazing and the base of ARK is stunning.

There are lots to play about with and the more you play the more you'll realise this and overlook the control and gameplay faults.

Above Average, better than Heroes but a long way from being Amazing.

Sonic Rush:

This game is by far the most fun I've had in a Sonic game for such a long time. The speed is always there, you can boost to full speed at the touch of a button. The trick system offers a reason to do more than just plough forward. And for once it's very noticeable that there are multiple routes to the same goal.

The levels are huge and are accomplied by awesome Jet Set Radio-esque music and great visuals. The bosses feel similar throughout but are great nethertheless. The special stage system is fantastic, first time in ages. Leaving the touch screen just for that was a smart move.

Though it's not without it's faults. Sonic and Blaze are more or less identical in how they move. No Flying as Tails, no Gliding and Climbing as Knuckles, No hammer smashing as Amy, etc. The only difference is Blaze can be sent flying with a well aimed stunt and Sonic can do the Special stages.

Also enemies are pretty basic and are as about as threatening as flies. They will only really take rings from you and stop good runs. Death will be the result of falling into a bottomless pit 99% of the time. Unless you're up against a boss and then it'll be getting crushed by special attacks that kill you even when you have rings.

The whole game reeks of evil traps and getting through them all is a real challenge.

And since you'll be hooked from the start you'll have the finished in no time at all, which is the final and biggest fault. It's too short. Only two characters and needing to get the emeralds once means all in all it took me 3 days, leaving me with only time beating and S ranks to get. This seems like a step back from the Advance games.

Challenging, fun but evil and short. A worthy purchase I just wish there was more to do.

Great, One of the best Sonic's since Adventure 2 and at least up there with Advance 3 if not just better.

Quick update

My life has been rated:
See what your rating is!
Created by bart666

I've been on the net longer than usual these days and with Shadow and Sonic Rush accomplying Fable and Advance wars DS, as well as my usual job hunting I'm finding myself with less time to do fics and pics.

I'll post opinions on the new Sonic games later OK.

Sometimes I don't get my mother / CUBE magazine

So the family is strapped for cash, Besides my brother who has a couple of grand from an inherentance (Sp?) that he wishes to keep for later, And xmas is coming.

Now I've asked for a PSP and 4 games. Mum said no problem.

They got out a catalogue and asked me to pick a bundle, did so after checking online to find a better one (still with the catalogue).

Here's the thing, THEY SAY that they won't have it in for Xmas 2005, it'll be Jan 2006 at the earliest. Damn you Sony and your shortages.

Today I suggested she quickly get a Giga pack PSP that came out TODAY. Fresh new stock available in stores.

She wants to use the catalogue cause she can pay later. I suggested taking the money out of my brothers account and pay that back like the catalogue.

Now for some reason she still wants to use the overpriced Catalogue that cannot guarantee Xmas delivery, over using my bro's money and getting it before there are more shortages at a better price. She'd rather use credit from a faceless company that her own son. She'd rather pay the same price as the GIGA pack for LESS features.

This I don't get and then she gets angry at me for saying I don't get it.

And what does she say to me, "Don't worry, we haven't let you down before. Sometimes these catalogues just say that"

ARGH! She's hoping that the catalogue is over-reacting and that they can send it in time for Xmas, instead of getting it now to Guarantee it.

I'm a gamer, I know the PSP is having shortage problems here, and i'm 99% sure ordering it from a catalogue that says it won't deliver it in time means I will have to wait until January for half my christmas.

Am I crazy or does this sound like a very bad idea, and she's angry at me!

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More bad news for me personally, and a shit load of magazine workers and readers of the magazine. CUBE magazine, the best console specific magazine on the market bar none just released it's final issue.

In a takeover by future the CUBE team were told to abandon the magazine without even a hint of a goodbye issue.

Most console specific mags sucks

You have sony mags for Chavs who like to cheat
Xbox mags aimed at the FHM audience (Xbox world I'm looking at you), or focus on showing massive screenshots to preview games (screens don't tell us anything beside the graphics)

Nintendo have always had the humour. NOM tries but fails and it too fanboyish, NGC hates Sonic pure and simple. CUBE was always inpartial, had a decent amount of humour and a great sense of community. Forum frenzy was always highlighted the very active and fun forum, which I'm a member of (Join now at www.mysega.co.uk).

Goodbye CUBE, you'll be sorely missed.

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Update: I've been working on an overview for my Sonic world. It's finished and will be up once I make full versions of Deep Pressure and Two Tribes (and anything else which isn't full fic).

My thoughts on the games coming

We're coming up to Christmas and that means big games. Here's my thoughts on some of them

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG

The one that's causing controversy between Sonic fans. It's true if you don't think you'll like it don't buy it, my impressions are leaning more to liking it. Yes it has some stupid things already, such as why does he need a gun when he can throw chaos attacks? why does he ride a motorcycle when he can run at the speed of sound?

Still I think it has some good ideas. The good/bad system sounds interesting and focusing on one character is a good move.

I reckon it'll be good but not brilliant, bad points will be a lack of control (general impression from GamesTM). This will be what the journalists will focus on, something small and rip the game apart because of it. I know this cause they've done it for every other Sonic.

SONIC RUSH

I have my worries. So much praise but when I look at it I wonder. So many leaps of faith. Looks like a highlight could be a disaster in disguise. Could be another Sonic Advance 2.

XBOX 360

Mixed opinion generally says to me it may be best to wait. High price, shortages, no thank you. It's funny though that Microsoft thinks a lead will get them to number 1. Didn't help the Dreamcast guys and I doubt many will buy an Xbox 360 over a PS3 at that price.

It's be a moderate sucess but will overall come second with a small but notable lead over Nintendo, just like this generation.

MARIO KART DS

Sounds amazing. A new Mario kart loaded with tracks and online. Must have.

Though it's not without it's faults. According to the Nintendo Wi-fi site you cannot choose who you play against. Say I want to play against The Virus, I plug in his code into my DS and he's listed under friends. I add more friends and decide to play online. I can only chose a Friends option, which means it will pick 7 random opponents from my friends list.

Got that, essentially you cannot pick which friend you play. Blows the chance of organising a tournament doesn't it, and two of my message boards already want to do that.

In summary, amazing game just with some small online issues.

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Update:

Fics on hold for now. I have two ideas for new 3 Shadows fics

A picture "parody" of the Sonic Heroes logo for Rememberance day on my DA (parody sort of implies comedy but nothing could be farther from the truth).

I really hate computers

Why the fuck can't they just work like you want them to?

Last night I spent nearly an hour trying to get ONE movie file to load. It kept jerking around like mad no matter what I did. I even moved it to another computer with more memory and processor power and still it didn't work.

It was a cool adaptation of the new Shadow the Hedgehog FMV, which also jerks around like mad and just doesn't play. 4 times out of 5 it made firefox crash as well. This means the computer thinks Firefox is still open when it's not so it asks you to open a new profile. It never asks this unless you crash.

Stupidly, since I didn't want to restart my computer I started a new profile. Big mistake as I couldn't get back to my old one without much hassle. Not only is the not a simple option (Guys what's wrong with Tools > Options > Profile selector?), it's not even in the fucking help section. You have to go to their site and use the run function. WTF? Why?

Now I'm waiting for an E-mail to appear in my Gmail inbox. I've at least refreshed 50 times in around half an hour waiting for an immediately sent E-mail to appear. WTF is going on? E-mail is instant. I order from play.com the E-mail is there more or less instantly.

Today I bought FABLE: THE LOST CHAPTERS. Put it in my Xbox and guess what it loaded. Just like 99% of my console purchases. No worries about Requirements, Memory, Ram, Hard Disk space, just put the game in and your away. The other 1% is the occasional faulty copy that you occasionally get, i.e. nothing to do with hardware.

WHY CAN'T PC's BE LIKE THIS?!?

WHY WON'T THEY JUST WORK?!?

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Art update:

If you haven't seen it yet there's a new ID, a picture of Sapphire and a scrap of Becky on my DA

Proud to be a Man Utd fan

Amongst all the crap the club has gone through this week, embarrasing results against Middlesborough and Lille, and the Captain's justified yet harsh comments against his teammates, one small ray of light shone on all fans including me.

Man Utd's 50 greatest goals

Why? It raised spirits and reminded us all of why Man Utd are the greatest football club in the world. Not because they win most of the time but for many reasons.

Firstly their history. Yes Liverpool have more cups but that's not the point.

1967/68, a season where half the team were killed in a disaster, and those who survived suffered serious injury. They ended that by becoming the first english team to win the European cup.

1999 our legendary treble winning season. With the munich game, 1-0 until the very end when two legendary subs came on and scored two legendary goals.

And our Double Double, how many other clubs have done that?

Next their dominance period. Ok it's over, it's Chelsea's turn, but they are feeling the sting dominance leaves. Like Liverpool, these two teams dominance have left the league sort of lifeless (To be honest besides Chelsea it's awesome, Wigan in Second!?!)

This wasn't the case for Man Utd. Why? Simply because they were never invincible. Despite winning trophy after trophy there was always the hint that an underdog could take the points. Not so for Liverpool and Chelsea during their dominances (if that isn't right I don't really care, you get what I mean).

This left the league unpredictable and when Arsenal started competing heavily football was heavenly. Not so today, Chelsea have won it already and their worst result in the league has been a draw.

now their respect. Are they ever dismissed. Are they ever not feared. The clubs big and 3rd place is a disasterous season. 3rd fucking place, most teams would kill for that. Respect or Jealous Hatred in most cases will always be with Man Utd for their amazing play and intimidation.

They entertain. I couldn't help laughing at King Eric's celebration after his stunning goal at Sunderland. It was just such an amazing goal, he knew it, the crowd knew it, everyone knew it and that was reflected in his cool celebration.

Giggs at number 1 for his incredible goal against Arsenal. Runs through 4 defenders from behind the half way line and scores. Beckham's half line shot, Rooney's thunderous strikes that seem effortless. Best, Law, Charlton, Cantona, Scholes so many amazing strikes.

Their goals have been spectactular over the years. More so than any other team.

Finally, even their second string is expected to perform as well as the first team. Man utd are in crisis but you have to remember that this is an injury Crisis. They are weak at the back and in the middle and because of that the front suffers.

The likes of Heinze, Neville, Keane, and Giggs were all missing yet they were still expected to perform against two great teams. Middlesborough are european contenders and Lille are in the champions league. We're not talking Barnet, Carlisle or Workington here.

Yet a 1-0 loss against one of those teams is a disaster. You can't expect second strings to dominate like the first team. It doesn't happen (Unless your chelsea, but they have the money to do that)

To sum it all up they say "This isn't the Man Utd we know", that's because it really isn't with all those injuries.

I Love United. They are never predictable, always respected (whether it be through love or hateful Jealousy) and always amaze.

Bring on Sunday with Chelsea.

I hate computers

Yes they allow you to browse the net, word process, make wonderful art, and play media

But when you really need them they for some unknown reason fuck up on ya.

Today Gmail refused to send a really important Email, I had to use my crappy hotmail account instead.

Also DeviantART can't seem to load images in full view, if you're lucky it starts loading it'll stop halfway.

There's always some unknown problem that you just don't understand.

Update 14

Guess what, no trick or treaters this year. How lame.

Anyway Deep Pressure is finished. Joz's death scene is up and a special Halloween picture is up on my DA.