Plissken

Yep. The record company force him to do the covers, because generally, the company own the songs that are covered. So they get the money from his version plus the "song-ownership" royalties. Sometimes they've paid for the rights outright, so coin in the songwriters royalties as well.

It isn't her doing it. Its her PR people, the Big Brother PR people, the tabloids people, its all a big clusterfuck. "We did it another time when the cameras weren't watching" is so complete bullshit I can't believe anyone is giving it any credence. The truth is first casualty of celebrity.

At what cost? To take Stus example, a perfect sounding version of Asteroids was summarily broken. No ifs, no buts, just smashed. It was only after several more iterations that it was restored to the similar but "more accurate" state. If the coders had said "hey, we've replaced Asteroids sound but it is the same", then fair enough, noone would complain. But to actively and deliberately remove functionality without a decent replacement? Something that occurs to me is that if you replaced "MAMEDEV" with "Microsoft" then a lot of people would instantly switch sides.

According to Moneywise magazine (Aug 2005 issue) Jade is now worth 14 million quid. That says something about the world we live in today, and I don't like it.

I've got a terrible urge to burn you as a heretic.

He was magnificent on Top Gear, with the "counter road rage by confusing people" strategy. "You! If it wasn't for you, the Millennium Dome would have been a success!" "What?" "You know what you did!"

You must be fucking joking - he's one of the most irritating and unlikeable people on Channel 4. And that includes most of the people in the BB house (and of course, June Sarpong and Vernon Kay) then it is going some. \ Russell Brand, today.

Jaynes hat from his mum in "The Message". As Wash said "People see a man wearing a hat like that, they know he's not afraid of anything." My own Very Fine Hat is a bowler, as said by Mal to Badger.

According to this article at least. October 25th. Bit scarce on extras, but you can't have everything.

Yay! Just got three tickets to the Whedon thing. Boo! Could have done with four! Or I'm going to be stuck with a mates ex-girlfriend who will whine constantly at missing it.

I shall join you in the taunting. A delivery of Very Fine Hats arrived today at my mates house in time for our trip to the premiere.

Ah, you are right. Straker was a stage name pre-Zombie.

Real name: Robert Straker.

Grrrrr. Plissken. Its bloody Plissken. (Sorry. Not aimed at you in particular.)

MGS2. Snake. Pliskin. What else does Kojima have to do? Wave a big banner saying "Hey, guess who I based it on." outside your window? Solid Snake isn't meant to be a direct representation, but in terms of attitude and voice its pretty straightforward.

If the XBox360 launch is really just two months away, then Microsoft are in trouble. I mean, two months before GTA:SA came out the buzz started building. There isn't a groundswell (that I'm aware of) towards the new console. If the article is true (in that Sony are letting Microsoft test the next-gen water) then it *could* be a smart move. I'm not convinced the market is ready for the next gen, so letting someone else dive in first is a gamble, but not necessarily that risky a gamble. If it flops, then Microsoft lose money. If it succeeds then Microsoft lose money. (Oh, and PGR3 is hardly a killer app. A decent GT4 campaign would kill that off. Isn't online racing due in GT4 soon? Seems to have gone quiet on that score, though.) Something that occurs to me (and I have had half a bottle of wine, so this may be bollocks.) One of the major drivers of PS2 sales was the cheap DVD drive. It (and GTA3) was the reason I bought one. The PS3 has HDMI on it for the HDTV stuff. HDTV is virtually unknown here in the UK to the mainstream market but don't Sky start HDTV broadcasts in mid-2006? So from Sonys POV, being able to say "That HDTV thingy, oh yeah, we can do that, so buy your HDTV and your new PS3 will look *lovely*" is a big marketing tool. I know XBox 360 can do HDTV *now* but thats not the point - going into Dixons in 18 months time and you can basically buy the new HDTV, plus the PS3 and "yes sir, it is compatible with your PS2 games".

He'll be using a similar name, next.

They've got their money, they've got their ratings, they've got what they wanted. These are people who deliberately engineered stuff like last years fight so what the fuck do they care?

You are wrong in every single way. How difficult can that be? Rubbish framerate my arse. Worse graphics? Not a chance. Sheesh.

I remember reading somewhere that handling memory cards was one of the most buggy and unreliable things that developers had to deal with.

Fuck off. I'm a rabid GT fanboy and there is no way that GT3 is the best in the series. GT4 pisses all over it in every single way. But... GT4 isn't the best in the series either. GT2 is. It took GT1 - a great game in its own right, improved everything, added some superb new tracks (which criminally haven't been used since) and had the race balancing max BHP system which worked. GT3 improved the graphics but removed tracks and cars. If Gran Turismo is to be in that list - and I think it should - then GT2 should be the representative.

Two words?

Fixed.

240Bhp through the front wheels will do that to you. It couldn't have been anything other than stupid. Wish they hadn't spent so much time slagging off the M5, before moving onto the good bits. But then it is the only BMW I would actually pay money for.

And just got four for the Whedon Q&A. This must be my lucky day.