Playstation 4

Ubisoft's Watch Dogs

Wednesday 11pm saw gamers huddle around their laptops,iPads,etc to watch the live announcememt of Sony's new console, Playstation 4. And as a fan who has been the Playstation since it first surfaced back in 1995, I expected to be skipping on rainbows of ecstasy like a giddy schoolgirl by the end of it (forgetting the fact im now 41.) I dont care what anyone says, there is a curious thrill about the unveiling of a new videogame console. I was stunned by Wipeout (PS1), KO'd by Resident Evil 2 (PS2) and even swooned over Motorstorm when that hit Playstation 3 in 2007. Im not ashamed by this, its what you get if you give a boy an Oric 1 for Christmas in 1983.
So it is with great sadness that after admitting all of the above, the Playstation 4 announcementleft me slightly cold. Not quite sub zero cold, (more like tee shirt in March cold) but I was certainly not overheating in anticipation of pixelated rapture. I think it was all the talk of "social media" and sharing on Facebook/Twitter that did it. Sorry Sony but I just want to play VIDEOGAMES, im not in the least bit interested in posting scores on Facebook or challenging Twitter followers to online races. I simply want to slip a game into the console and smite weird beasties to kingdom come. Balls to Facebook. Im old fashioned like that. Its nothing new of course, theres already a ton of places on teh interwebz that use social networking sites to share folks interests, and fine some people like that kind of thing but it doesn't boil my kettle im afraid. (Reading comments on forums and underneath news stories about PS4, im not alone either.)
As for the Playstation 4 being able to predict what game you might be interested in and downloading it automatically? I hope we'll be able to disable that nonsense. (Im being dragged into the future kicking and screaming Laughs Out Loud.)
Thankfully things start to look up on the gaming side of things. This is why we're here afterall! Watch Dogs got me most interested (see the trailer above) as did Killzone: Shadow Fall. I didn't notice a huge difference graphically to PS3 (even when a Evolution developer waffled about "even the suede on the car seats has a direction") but as time goes on, game designers will learn how best to squeeze the most OOMPH out of the machine. We didn't get to see any sports titles (or was I asleep?) and I can't wait to see how a NFL or golf game looks on Playstation 4.
Unfortunately we also didn't get to see what the actual console looked like either so fanboys will have to make do with gawking at the new DualShock 4 joypad, complete with touchscreen and LED tracker. Looks a little rubbery but I quite like it. The screen on the pads front reminding me of the Dreamcast's VMU. Speaking of older consoles, as a RetroHead backwards compatabilty is important to me so I was a tad miffed to learn that PS1, 2 and 3 games will be available via Playstation 4’s cloud service. So no using my original copy of Tombi or Yakuza then? Bah! Happy they will be available in some form though.
I realise this started on a downer with the Facebook sharing side of things but I am quite excited about Playstation 4. Its just (obviously) not the mind blowing transition I experienced going from Oric to MegaDrive to Playstation back in those wilderness years.


DualShock 4

Here are some games that we got a glimpse of:

Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla)
Diablo III (Blizzard)
DriveClub (Evolution)
Deep Down (Capcom)
Destiny (Bungie)


DriveClub

No Heavy Petting

Vintage: Jubilee Pool, Llanelli

Was thinking about the Marina in Swansea earlier and I got to thinking how much swimming pools have changed since I was a young boyo growing up in the 1970's/80's. I was what my grandmother called a "water baby" because I loved swimming and spent a fair amount of time at the Jubilee pool in Llanelli, jumping from top board, 'bombing' friends. (In fact I will go as far as to claim I was one of the first ten year olds in Strade school to actually dive from the highest board.)

But the changes from the 'baths' then to now are are as different as a graceful dive is to a bellyflop.

First off, the water seems warmer in todays sports centers.

Pools of yesteryear always had a foot bath linking changing room to swimming pool. Don't see them these days.

Swimming pools used to have a gutter running around the edges, as well as the occasional handrail.

The "No Heavy Petting" signs have disappeared.

Ditto the frightening grates in the middle of the deep end. I used to imagine all kinds of underwater leviathans inhabited those, convinced a slimy claw would reach out from the darkness if you dared get too near and pull you to your doom.

Leisure centers used stink of chlorine which would linger on you all day. Coming home on the bus you could always tell if someone had visied Jubilee pool. The potent stink has gone, along with hamburgers. Ah yes in Llanelli baths they didnt sell regular beefburgers, you got hamburgers (which were rather tasty if my tastebuds remember rightly.)

Jailhouse Justice

No heroes they

This week a child killers body was found murdered in a cell at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire. And you know something? Dai Jakes won't lose a wink of sleep over it, I feel not an ounce of pity for those who torture and kill children. What is troubling however is the amount of people calling the two suspected murderers 'heroes', and even going so far as suggesting they should be released. And yes you read that right, released. Go to any online edition of a newspaper who is running this story and in the comments section underneath you will read plenty of support for this bit of 'jailhouse justice'. (The same thing is happening on various internet forums.)
Have ye all gone mad? HMP Long Lartin accomodates Category A prisoners, some of the most dangerous inmates in Britain, and folk want a couple to go free? Okay sure, let them out, why not? Afterall they probably only raped or killed people themselves eh? So fine release them for bad behaviour (murder remember?) and do away with justice for THEIR victims. Sound good? No, not to me either. You see the trouble with 'jailhouse justice' (besides the whole moral side of it) is it makes prisoners feel they are on the same level as law abiding citizens who foolishly believe that their 'good deed' wipes the slate clean. Newsflash: they are not, and it doesn't. Heroic? No, its just bad men offing bad men.

Safety Catch Off

Mr Jakes and friend in rehab

I am not a fan of Paul Gascoigne but I have been where he is in regards to drinking so he has my best wishes. However I fear this is a story that is doomed to end in tears. Footballers and celebrity friends can throw all the money they want towards rehab costs but money means NOTHING to addiction. It is worthless. It is like trying to treat cancer with wine gums and doc leaves. Believe me, and I really do not wish to dwell on negativity here, I have looked into the eyes of an alcoholic who has given up the ghost and Gascoigne has the exact same look about him. And famous friends won't help. Or their money.
In fact where on earth were these friends to allow him to get so bad? Lonliness plays a huge part in alcoholism (especially when one finally gets clean), so where was the concern over Paul then? It seems to me that unless the ex footballer is in dire needs and on death's door, his so called friends let him get on with it. They are nowhere to be seen. Of course when his flame burned brightest (Italia 1990? Im not a football fan) they flocked to his 'glow' but come the arrival of the doldrums they disappear like Dodos. This has been the saddest thing to witness for me, the empty smiles in newspapers, knowing he's probably weeping inside.
A friend of Gascoigne has said, "it could be a long road to recovery." Quite. It is the longest road of all. (Or shortest depending on how quick one is picking up a bottle again.) Money is not going to help here. It might soothe a few consciences of those who feel the pangs of guilt, but throwing money at an alcoholic who looks hellbent on drinking no matter what is pure folly. I really hope he can get sober but excuse me having mega doubts that he will. You have to want to do it but worryingly Paul looks like he doesn't. In fact he reminds me so much of the late George Best, who was another filled with promises of never drinking again, blah blah, blah and yet only stopped when it killed him.
In all of my long time as a drinker (and having had another alcoholic in the family), ive heard and seen it all, and it hurts me to say it but I know the look of the beaten. The look of a person completely surrendering to alcohol. The look of Paul Gascoigne.

Betray the Wind

My name is Despair

Paul Gascoigne is a doomed man. I fear he has reached the point of no return, I really do. A paper recently ran a story claiming that the ex footballer is "hooked on a mix of valium and strong lager," and pictured him buying booze at 11am. It also said that 'Gazza' has told his friends: "The one thing I can't live without in my life is a drink. I know I have to stop boozing but I simply can’t."
If this is true (lets face it tabloids are hardly gospel) then all the help being offered to him is hopeless. This is one battle that nobody can fight for him and unless he hits a 'moment of clarity' soon, real soon, he will be dead before 50. Killed by the bottle like that other gifted footballer, George Best. He was another man who believed alcoholism was a fight he could leave to others to sort out. Then he died, and Gascoigne will too unless he has a drastic turnaround. Believe me, alcohol is no fun to those unfortunates to whom it sinks its lethal claws. In moderation it can be beneficial to health, while in excess it becomes as destructive as any class A drug (more so perhaps because it seems to affect more organs but i'll leave that to experts.)
It is always terribly sad to see any person in such a state but the truth is like I have already said, nobody can save himelf can actually save him from himself. I know only too well the agony and despair of alcoholism, and I also know the loss of losing a loved one through it. It is vile, capable of hanging, drawing and quartering the very spirit of a human being. And to those who call Gascoigne a worthless drunk with no self control, think again. He is in a place right now where I would not wish my worst enemy to be. A dreadful place with bleak never ending walls wherever one turns, that choke light and swallow hope. I know because I have been there many times. Nobody would willingly put themselves in this hole; no fun is to be found there for as sure as alcohol can give a 'normal' person a glow of happiness and well being, to someone in the pits of addiction it offers only cold stings and sickly barbs that pull at flesh and make it hard to carry on.
Football hero he might be, I have no love for the sport so im not aware of Gascoigne's 'genius', but I do care for my fellow man when I see him suffering and I wish him all the strength and courage in the world because he needs it right now. He really does.

Dai's 6 Nations Predictions

Today is the start of the rugby 6 Nations! And first game up is Wales v Ireland in the grand Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Dai Jakes wasn't too shabby last year with predictions so heres this afternoons score broght to you via Jenkins bakeries fortune pasties (good idea there mun!): Wales 19 Ireland 14.

Now let us warm up with a dance with Tom and Delilah. Mwynhewch! Pob lwc bois !!