I've been a fan of Doctor Who since i was small. i am now 32. I have a vivid memory of Tom Baker turning into Peter Davidson, and so it was that the 5th Doctor was my doctor, i drifted away during the 6th Doctore tenure, time schedualing on the bbc and the A-team did that, but i came back for the final foray of the 7th and the splendid Slyvester McCoy. then we waited seven long years and my friends went to the pub but i stayed home because Who was back and I saw McGann as the 8th, I liked and I hated it in equal measure, I wanted more but I wanted to never see the americanosed version again. 

It went away and i forgot about Who. The odd episode on UK Gold was all we got a splash of Pertwee or Baker, a chat over as pint with friends of what could have been for Mcgann...but it all drifted to the back of my mind while uni, and work took over...Then the rumours...it was coming back RTD at the helm, but he wrote queer as folk (which i loved) but that was not Who at all! and we got 9! Ecelston, he was brilliant in Shallow Grave and Brilliant as the Doctor and so was the Billie Piper as Rose, who would have thought it of the pop ditty songstress..but he said he was going.. I was already campaigning for Tennant, I loved him Blackpool and Cassanova (another RTD prodution) and he got the role and i got my second doctor. 5 and 10.

Then he left...and i cried

The Grand Moff took over

Steven Moffat has written my favoutite episodes of 'New' Who. Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Girl in The Fireplace, (the astoundig Doctor-lite episode) Blink, and the meeting of my 5 and 10 in Time Crash. he was now in charge of the ship and had cast Matt Smith, i was sceptical....

The Eleventh Hour....

 I will not spoil..

I will say wow. I love the 11th Doctor I love the direction by Adam Smith, I love the writing by Steven Moffat and most of all I love Matt Smith, he nailed it. I will happily say this is the best opening episode of a Who series i have ever seen. I laughed, i punched the air, and when he opened his Tradis i cried. RTD reinvented Doctor Who , he gave it me and many other it back but i perrsonaly was never 100% happy with 'his' episodes i loved the series but it lacked somewhat, however he opened the door. If Mr Moffat continues as he has began he will have kicked the door off its hinges and nailed it to the wall.

Bravo to Steven, Matt, Karen and Adam...you have started something special.

Bring on 'The Beast Below'

The UK paper the Daily Mail called for the banning of evil video games based on the MW2 airport level http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226588/Call-Duty-Political-storm-brutal-video-game-allows-killing-civilians-airport-massacre.html

I disagree vehemntly with what the newspaper says about video games and although the link is to a MW2 story i couldn't find the direct article.

This is a link to nukoda who have an image of the front page

http://nukoda.com/news/pressure-group-forms-over-mp-modern-warfare-2-remarks/

having completed MW2 single player i think i can comment with a clear view of what the game offers. The airport massacre is unecessary and shocking and i think this is the point. The terrorists could easily have been planting bombs or disrupting/taking control of flight air control ala die hard 2. We would then have been dealing with planes, yes people would be on them but we wouldn't have been cold bloodidly shooting innocent people while looking at their digital faces as they ran screaming. This would not appear in a film as it does in MW2, and the degree of control you have makes this very different from cinema, you directly choose to shoot someone with their hands up or crawling on the ground after being shot. I also think its different to GTAIV where you choose to kill innocent peopel if thats what you want to do, the missions don't take you there, with MW2 your put in that level and although you could walk through without shooting there is an expectation for you to mame innocent peopel. A bigger issue is who can buy games, age limits are not strictly followed parents have little understanding of the system or the content. IMO this is where legislation should be placed with the onus on the parent and the retailer not the developer. I think MW2 maybe a step to far with this one section of one mission but i would not want developers to be censored or games withdrawn from sale

Arkham Asylum when it comes out will be in my eyes an excellent barometer for where the PS3 currently stands as a console this gen When i say that i'm talking about today, tomorrow and the future. For those shouting from the rooftops that the PS3 slim will be the turning point i think Arkham will show us a good fortnight before we get a slim our hands if this is the case.

 Here is my thinking on this. Arkham is the first game i can think of that is multiplatform and has a significant amount of exclusive PS3 content. I have all the consoles and handhelds this gen, i am not a fanboy of any particular console. When Arkham comes out i'll buy it for the 360. Even though the PS3 has exclusive challenge maps that i could play as the Joker i'll still get the 360. Why, because i think i am more tied into this console in terms of achievements than i am to Sony with their trophies. This makes no sense, i would get free stuff with the PS3 version extra game, a free comic for my psp, but i'll still get it on the 360. This is why i think we'll see a hell of alot from the sales of Arkham on the two platforms that speaks volumes for the rest of this gen.

 Sony should sell more copies of Arkham than they do of a normal multiplatform title. This is because the extra content should make anyone who owns a PS3 and a 360 buy the game on the PS3. If it does not then there is a clear leaning from that consumer to the 360 for whatever reason, wether it be controller, achievments or whatever. So if it does not sell more copies than the general non DLC/content exclusive high end title then Sony can in my eyes resign themselfs to third place.

Some bold sweeping statements have been made in this blog but i really do think this is a big thing to watch, even if Sony shift alot more PS3 systems with the slim will those console owners only be picking up the 7 or 8 exclusive titles for the system. Will they be going for the multiplatform stuff elsewhere. Not a big thing really as Sony will still shift the exclusives. Let me draw your eye to the N64 which i think is a console and a half compared to the PS1, an underused system with for that gen alot of power under the hood, it lost third party support and relied on selling Nintendo own titles pretty much only . Sony are in that position now, admitedly slightly rosier than Nintendo were but never the less if multiplatform slips to a no brainer of a 360 purchase i think the PS3 as a games console is in a sticky patch 

So where to begin with picking a team from a sport you know nothbing about.

Initial ideas were to pick a team that plays in red. In the UK i support Liverpool FC who have an all red strip. I started looking through teams who'd won the super bowl on wikipedia and then on sports map world. No teams were catching my eye until I landed on the Green Bay Packers. My brother-in-law lived for 18months in Wisconsin while he was doing his Phd and left me to look after my pinning sister. So i have a tenuous link with Wisconsin so thats decided my team of choice will be the Green Bay Packers. 

Oh god picking up the game i now see the cover bloke is from the Green Bay packers.....

......

.....

Quick wikipedia search tells me its Brett Favre. Well i'm defintley a Packer now.

So the disc is in and i've taken the Madden test. My Madden IQ is 437 and i am awful at pass defense. Oh dear

So my first game is played. Green Bay Packers Vs Chicago Bears I walked away with a win after a 14:0 victory touchdown in the 3rd and 4th. The one in the 4th. I gave control away with a poor pass at about the 12 yard line. I got a sweet interception at the 6 yard line and ran it the rest of the way with seconds to go. Woooo!

I'm getting the idea with attack but defense is a bit clueless can't seem to read what is happening and just end up mashing the A button.

I picked up 165 Achievment points

- Hold a Rival to under 20

- Hold a Rival to under 30

- Intercept 6 passes in a game

- Complete a game without fumbling 

So from the title its pretty obvious i'm from the UK and i'm a gamer. As such football for me is Liverpool FC, the Premiership, European, FA and World Cups. The old one two, offside rule, 442, 45min halfs, scorchers in the top corner, boxing day fixtures, 0:0 away to in dreary january. If this is all double dutch to you then your version of football is probably what I know as American Football.

 As a gammer the main game that i know of for American Football is Madden and all it iterations, the football i know is a similar affair with two main games fighting for everyones money.  The FIFA and Pro Evolution (Pro Evo) series. In recent years its EAs FIFA that has moved on in leaps and bouds while Konamis Pro Evo series, which was for so long that standard, that has taken its eye off the ball. Excuse the pun.

 I have never played Madden but after hearing all the stuff on the TAG podcasts I think I should dip my toe in, and its a challenge for me to enter the world of what appears to be a very complicated sport knowing pretty much nothing. I'm sure there will be a gammer night and it would be fun to jump in. Madden 10 is released in the UK this coming friday. Now i think its a bit silly for me to try and get to grips with a game that could wind me up and frustrate me so much that I chuck it to the wall within a week. So i'm going to start my Madden experience with 09 which i pick up now for about £15 new which is very reasonable and an impulse purcxhase if I ever saw one.

 I'm going to try and play at least one or two games a day and see how it goes. I'll blog my experience and very much like Stings song and Englishman in New York i'll sit down with a nice cup of tea and let you see what its like from the uneducated (in the sports sense) side of things.  

 FIFA 10 is due out in October and having played the last only on my PS3 this time i'll be moving to the 360.  i'll throw the gauntlet out to any of you TAGrs on the other side of the Atlantic if you want to try the reverse with FIFA i'll happily give you a game.

 Now time to go and buy Madden 09