100 Greatest Cartoons

I know some of you will have watched this but this is what I found particularly interesting.

#100 - Wacky Races
Why is this all the way down here? And why did Penelope Pitstop have a vibrator on her car?

#94 - Queer Duck
wtf?

#79 - Peter Pan
It wasn't good for the classic Disneys

#77 - Tintin
WHY SO LOW?!

#76 - Belleville Rendevous
How the hell did this get in? Not that it's a bad film or anything.

#72 - Legend of the Overfiend
The hentai classic. It worries me that it nearly made the top 70.

#67 - The Snowman
100% pure depression.

#62 - Battle of the Planets
The anime classics started strongly.

#52 - 2DTV
The ultimate pisstake show.

#45 - Pokemon
Oh yes!

#42 - Samurai Jack
Life affirming animation and a big surprise.

#37 - Transformers
#54 - Thundercats
Why were these not higher than....

#34 - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
....this pile of shit.

#26 - TMNT
COME ON!!

#21 - Princess Mononoke
The anime classic gains recognition but not as much as.....

#16 - Akira
....which doesn't get as high as....

#8 - Sprited Away
For the oscar winning anime masterpiece to get into the top 10 shows that UK audiences DO love anime.

#3 - South Park
Above Toy Story, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.

#1 - The Simpsons
And deservedly so.

With 3 anime masterpieces placing in the top 25 it's starting to look like anime has a real future in the UK. Look out for a new feature later entitled Future of Anime.

I'm now off to recover from a hentai film making the list at all, let alone the high 70s. The full list is available at www.channel4.com/greatest

The Guru Quits

This is an announcement that has truly shocked both me and the hentai community as a whole. Numbus, the co-founder of Hentai Palm, the biggest hentai site in the world has left both Hentai Palm and the Hentai Group as a whole after 3 years. Numbus, Barros and Hentai Palm changed my life nearly 2 years ago. He is a truly dedicated person, both to the site and the people that visit it. Whenever I've emailed him with a question I have got a reply within hours. He has to repair bugs in the site every day and has updated it like clockwork every few days. He says that the time off may or may not be permenant but whatever he does he takes the love and respect of the hentai community with him wherever.

Numbus' blog which he has promised to keep updated can be reached from the sidebar.

Following this announcement I am considering giving up hentai completely.

Wanted

This is the list of stuff I want right now. It's pretty big.

Games Stuff
Nintendo DS
Naruto 3 (GC)
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GC)

Albums
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
Jay-Z and Linkin Park - Collision Course

Anime Stuff
Naruto in the UK (the US has it so why not here?)
Angelic Layer Volume 1 (I don't know why I didn't get it when I had the chance)
Patlabor 1+2 (see above)
Chobits Manga (if anyone knows a reliable download site let me know)

Other Stuff
The front of the Dakota single by Stereophonics
Tickets to the Reading festival
A legal permit to kill the following bands; Feeder, Muse and The Others
A night out with Pete Doherty
A broadband internet connection
March 2nd to come quickly (AMAZING RACE 7!!)

FUCKING COME ON!!

Officially half way there. In 25 hours and 43 minutes I reached disc 2. Now it all gets serious. In my gaming life I've completed the following RPGs.

Golden Sun

1. I have persued 1 RPG to the end. That took about 20 hours. If I finish ToS it would be the 2nd biggest single achievement of my gaming life (1st being 120 stars on Mario 64). I'm halfway there.

Rebirth

I've heard a rumour that the 4th Tales game entitled Tales of Rebirth is out this year. I'm so fucking there.

24

Well it's closer to 26 now. I think I'll list my 5 favourite things in ToS over the last 24 hours of gameplay.

NOTE: I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers but some may creep in. If you don't want to risk it then don't read this post.

1: The Colette's Sacrifice Scene
You probably all know by now that the awesome scene in the Tower of Salvation put me through the emotional ringer. I cried (seriously) and went into a state of immense anger. That section is a perfect fusion of excellent voice-acting, a brilliant script and superb animation.

2: The Opening
ToS' opening sequence (the bit before the start screen) is a masterpiece. Whenever I forget about what makes the game so special I just watch this through and it all comes back.

3: Colette
My favourite character. Colette really brings a lot to the game and is easily the best realised character.

4: The Desians
The scum of the earth. These guys get me boiling up inside whenever I come across them but that is great as every fight against them is slightly personal.

5: Quiet Moments
These scenes with no enemies, no imminent fights and no rush. They let the story develop peacefully and are the most memorable scenes in the game.

I'm still not past disc 1 yet so there's another 24 hours of excellence to come. I only hope that the story hasn't worn itself out yet.

Current Gameclock
26h 33m



Some of you may have noticed the SupportAsia.com button has disappeared from the sidebar. This is because of two things.

1) I needed some space for the Committee to Protect Bloggers button.
2) After recieving over £300,000,000 the DEC has officially closed the appeal. Thanks to everyone who donated from w00tworld.

Played More RPGs Than I Have

I read a review of Tales of Symphonia in Edge a while ago (8/10) and they said it had played more RPGs than I have. Well wandering around Meltokyo today I found the slums area (it's below the rest of it) and a traveller came out with a real fucking gem of a line. Cut scenes may have moved me to tears but this line moved me to histerical laughter.

"I heard there was a pretty flower girl in the slums but I must have the wrong town"

HAAAAHAHAHAHA!!

Bad Shit

Headline from ZDNet UK 24th February 2005

"Iranian Blogger Jailed for 14 Years"

Seems like some people don't get this free speech online stuff yet. 3 Iranian people have now been imprisoned for that most henious of crimes, keeping a blog. The blogging community is banding together to help free these people and spread the word that the net should always be free. Use the button in the sidebar to visit The Committee to Protect Bloggers and see what you can do to help.

Tales of Symponia Review

I've reviewed a lot of stuff sure but I've never reviewed an RPG before. After playing ToS for a bit longer I've got so much more to say about it so I've taken down the review for the time being. It'll be back up when I've rewritten it.

Also a formal welcome to new reader Brittany aka Chemically-Insane. I'm still split over adding her dA page to the links panel as she's a great buddy but I'm not sure whether her name will fit in the sidebar.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

I know a game is special when it joins the 20 club. That is games that have endured my attention for over 20 hours. It takes a lot as 20 hours is a lot longer than you think. F-Zero GX, Deus Ex, Sonic Heroes etc are all some of my favourite games that have barely lasted 15 hours. It's when 24:00 rolls onto the clock that I'll know that Tales of Symphonia is long lasting.

I'm not even on the 2nd disc yet.

Current Gameclock - 21h 31m

NME Awards CD 2005

I wasn't a reader of NME this time last year so I don't have last year's to compare it to but this year's awards CD kicks ass. Pretty much anyone worth caring about is on here.

The Cover


(from left to right)
Bloc Party, Pete Doherty, The Killers, New Order (I think), Billie Joe (Green Day) and Franz Ferdinand.

Unlike the Cool List CD (which I've lost) this one comes in a high quality jewel case. The glue holding it to the cover isn't industrial strength either so we all have a chance of getting it off without resorting to knifes.

Kaiser Chiefs - Na Na Na Na Naa
Won - Philip Hall Radar Award
This is the one to start a gig with. No wonder the Kaisers always do.

Franz Ferdinand - Missing You
Won - Best Track (Take Me Out), Best Album (Franz Ferdinand)
Whoa! The best dressed band in the UK deliver with a rare B-Side.

The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now
Won - Best British Band
Mr Doherty's first appearance is in this defining Libs track. Official song of post-rehab punch-ups.

Muse - The Small Print
Won - Best Live Band (eh?)
Is it just me or do all Muse tracks sound the same? This sounds a lot like Time is Running Out. Which sounded similar to Plug in Baby. Which sounded like.....

The Killers - Change Your Mind
Won - Best International Band, Best Dressed Man (Brandon Flowers), Sexiest Man (Brandon Flowers)
The salmon-suited Mr Flowers provides this cool, lyrically focused track (i.e. I have nothing to say about it)

Bloc Party - Tulips
Won - Bugger all
The critically ignored Bloc boys with a awesome chillout track.

The Futureheads - Alms
Won - Bugger all
Manic and fun. Typical Futureheads.

The Others - In The Background
Won - John Peel Award for Musical Innovation (why?)
Jealous, bitter, headline grabbing wanker Domonic Masters continues to label his crap MUUUUSIC FOR THE PEOPLEEEE so it'll stand a chance of selling in order to fund his drug habit. Just fuck off Domonic.

The Streets - Blinded by the Lights (Mitchell Brothers Mix)
Won - Bugger all
Can't touch Dry Your Eyes but it's a good remix.

Graham Coxon - Spectacular
Won - Best Solo Artist
This is what Blur were and should always have been. The king of indie showing the pretenders how it's done.

Green Day - She's a Rebel (Live)
Won - Best Video (American Idiot)
When these guys are on form nothing can touch them. Here's the proof.

Babyshambles - The Man Who Came to Stay
Won - Bugger all
Doherty returns with another band. This isn't as good as his earlier appeance but once it gets going you'll like it.

New Order - I Told You So
Won - Fuck Me Award for Godlike Genius
Now I understand.

This CD is free with this week's issue of NME (26th February 2005) priced £1.90. It also features a lot more people who think Domonic Masters is a twat.

ToS Again

Now I have another problem. My sister has started playing Tales of Symphonia. Which means I now need to get home pretty damn sharpish to gain control over the Gamecube.

Current gameclock
17h 37m

The Pact

It would seem to me that there is an unwritten, unspoken agreement between Tales of Symphonia players.

If you have finished it and therefore know the story and you are talking to someone who is working through it.....

Do not talk about the story.

Every person I talk to who's played or is playing ToS has always resisted talking about the story. Nothing's even slipped out accidentally and from one of my mates who has no problem revealing storylines that is unusual. This game really does have an effect on you.

It is Done

Nesper
Skullkrusha
Snyderman
Sadorf
Joker
Jayson Litrio
Icy Guy
Analoq
Sir Nuts
Psawnik
Aeolius
FF Music DJ
Haydn
Mario
Blak Omen
Jonathon Stryker
E-Claire
DCT
and Richter

On the 3rd of October 2003 1 unknown remixer had a vision. He wanted to group together a team of remixers to remix the whole Sonic 2 soundtrack. Posting in the forums at Overclocked Remix he assembled an (on) crack team. They quit. Holes were filled with more mixers and they quit too. Many more entered and left before the 19 remixers mentioned above came together at last to finish the longest running remix project in history. It is finished. It is ready. But it is not available.

Yet.

After 1 and a half years the Sonic 2 Remix Project is finished. Richter has guided it from start to finish never giving up when the going got tough. On the 1st of March 2005 it will be available to download.

Emeralds of Chaos
March 1st
www.paletteswap.com/sonic2

Thank fuck for that.

Divided Opinion - #1 - Cosplay

I am currently bored beyond belief so I'll start this which I had the idea for about 3 months ago. I give my honest opinion on something, simple as that. First off something that has been dividing the net for years. The art of dressing up as videogame, anime, film, TV etc characters.

The 2 camps of opinion are those who think cosplayers are retarded dumbasses and those who think they are creative, imaginative people who don't give a toss what the retard dumbass camp think.

I'm in the second camp. I think cosplay is a brilliant way of being creative and having a lot of fun at the same time. I think those who do it have a passion for the subject matter that can only be envied by everyone else. I envy cosplayers for having the means and talent to do it and I hope that in later life when I've loosened up a bit (I care far too much what other people think to do it right now) and I have the money to do it I'll be able to start doing it. There's also the social aspect which to be honest I am pretty starved of right now.

To find out more about cosplay check out this month's issue of Cube magazine (issue 42) for a great feature or visit www.cosplay.com for pics and info.

Right, back to being bored.

New Links

Check out my 2 latest sidebar picks. Check out miss--misery aka Ali Pascoe's blog in the blogs panel and also check out Suki-Suika in the deviantART panel.

Site of the Month

You know when a developer is proud of a game when they really put some effort into the official site. Nowadays the norm for an official site is the following.

Wallpapers
Fan Site Kit
Press Releases
Forum

However this month's site of the month has that little bit more. Real concept art from the artists, a fan site kit worth having even if you don't plan to build a fan site, links to all known fan sites. It's these little things that made my visit to Namco's Tales of Symphonia site so enjoyable. The game is awesome but didn't get the attention it deserved. It's a series that has a history of innovation and quality yet has never even managed third after the nastily inconsistent Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem and Breath of Fire series'. It's that striving for recognition that gives the site a real quality when you see it's not bragging or showing off. No bullshit, just a haven for the fans and that's what an official site for anything should be.

Site of the Month: February
Tales of Symphonia Official
http://tales.namco.com

DDR Sites

They're falling. DDR:UK, DDR America and DDR Maniax have all come offline. DDR:UK is tempoarily closed (I've e-mailed Myst to find out what's happened). DDR America is offline. DDR Maniax is unaccessable. If you can get on DDR Maniax please e-mail me so I know. It seems like Konami has started an assault on simfiles. DDR:UK and DDR America were together the largest source of official simfiles and DDR Maniax alone formed the biggest simfile community on the net.

So to summarise;
DDR:UK
Biggest and most well known source for official DDR simfiles. Tempoarily closed.
DDR America
Biggest bittorrent tracker for official and original simfiles. Offline.
DDR Maniax
Biggest DDR community in the world. Unaccessible.
Bemani Style
Biggest collection of original bemani simfiles in the world. Online.
DDR East Invasion
DDR info site for the east coast of America and host of Tournamix. Online.
DWI - Dance With Intensity
The best DDR simulator available and hosted by DDR:UK. Online.

The Net's On Fire

Well. 99 days. Support from a large ISP. Support from companies from Imageshack to Nokia. The largest open-source marketing project in history.

In just over 3 months the tremendous Firefox browser has hit 25 million downloads. Now Microsoft have finally sat up and taken notice. The 2nd browser war is on, Microsoft announced this week that they'll be releasing IE7 before the end of the year. Can they defy the critics and the odds to provide a standards compliant, safe browser or will they fail and let Firefox become the standard. We'll see.

The Truly Amazing Race

An immensely biased one sided review of the brilliant US show The Amazing Race is now available on the reviews channel.

WARNING - If you are one of my mates and you have broadband I will be grovelling and bribing you next time I see you so you can download series 7 for me.

A Super Kenocrew

Sorry to keep going on like this. I've put together a Kenocrew.

The Mighty Bulls!!
Captain
Emma Lambourne
Vice-Captain
Francis Lambourne
Crew
Joanne Lambourne
Toby Elkins

Lucky Numbers
12
19
Lucky Colour
Blue

Look out for us in the winzone.

The Season

Tis the season to get excited my friends. I got some dates for you.

Gamestars 2005
April 2005?
The only televised video games awards in the UK comes back for it's 3rd year. Along with the search to find out who's the greatest gamer in the UK now. While not formally announced yet the continued success of the event coupled with the 10 show contract mentioned below suggests that it's coming.

E3 Expo 2005
18-20th May
A concrete mid may date as always. This year expect coverage from w00tworld as I'll be summerising all the big news to come out of the 3 day show every day. Basically I check the news sites so you don't have to.

Gamestars Live 2005
October 2005?
As of yet the Gamestars Live show hasn't been announced but the 10 show series ITV have promised to cover it gives me a slight inkling that it's gonna happen. It was great last year dispite Sony's 'we're too good for the UK' attitude. More of the same please but don't give EA a blockade over the middle this time.

Gaming events are always well hyped in advance but here are my predictions for what you can expect at E305

Revolution (Nintendo return)
Xbox 2
EAs 2006 lineup (like anyone cares)

Revenge of the Purity Test

You may remember when the purity test was doing the rounds a few months ago. I did it then and today I did it again.

This time: 80.50

The scores are between 100 and 0 with 100 being angelic. As you can see virginity is a big advantage.


In other news you can find a new feature on the features channel. My favourite TV channels of all time.

Yes I was playing Super Keno tonight. For 2 hours.

Gmail

OK, I need something to do with them.

Everyone who emails me over the next 4 weeks will get one of my 2000 Gmail invites.
1 per person only though.

Problems

How did I get into this situation? How did I become so fucked up that I would instinctively take an unwashed, blood and snot stained shirt out my wardrobe and pull it on this morning?

That shirt which has been worn endlessly for a week. It stinks of methane and smoke. It's not plesant and that's been annoying me all day.

I think I might take offers for the Gamestation shirt actually.

I've Said it Before But.....

Is it just me or does this blog smell like Gamestation now?
Oh, that's my shirt.
Seriously when I came to this page I just had a whiff of what smelt like a nasty combo of Matt's lunch, Kev's farts, Lee's shit (don't ask) and Reiner's fags.

NO!! STOP TALKING ABOUT GAMESTATION!!

Apologies. Anyway I just wander over here to the net with every intention of finding a few manga series'. Well I get here, wander over to NarutoFan, follow the usual banner to Direct Manga (must bookmark) and head to the category section. When I get there I can't sodding remember what I'm there for. That's happened too many times.

What Will Piss Me Off

I would be really pissed off if Mercenaries turns out to be shit. The promo pack I described in the first Gamestation Diary kicked ass and the side banner ad is also brilliant. I was playing with that for 5 minutes. Have a go with it if you come across it. Just hope that they had some money left for the game after the PR rush.

Oh, it was also on the cover of MCV. The video game industry's trade newsaper. Actually MCW is the paper and MCV is the retail version (i.e. it has a big list of new releases in it). Great way of wasting time though.

Gamestation Diary: One Last Thing

Almost forgot this.

This is what slowed down the rescan on Thursday.
It's a pair of big pics so be patient.

Whoops

[double post]

Gamestation Diary: Day 5

In the words of Bloc Party, so here we are. Day 5. Day 5 of 5. Processing new games and lazing around in the office was all I did today. To be honest now all's said and done i'm quite glad to be out. In today's final edition it's time to sum up the big moments of the week and giving out my final, no holds barred opinions of the crew.

The Crew
Mark
I appreciate everything this guy did. Honest, witty and friendly.

Kev
I liked this guy at the start of the week. I don't like him anymore. At the end of every day he was in he seemed desperate to get rid of me.

Reiner
Ugly. Annoying. Bitter. Rude. Big headed.

Lee
Showing off your crack everytime you bend down does not prove your blokeness.

Matt
Cool. The only member of the crew who made me feel truly welcome.


Key Moments
These are the moments that stick out in my memory. The moments that will plaster a grin over my face every time I think of them.

Someone'll Grab 'Em
Kev
"I'll just leave the Halo 2 posters here and see if anyone grabs them"
Mark
"Do you think that'll work with my nuts?"

Trou, bags and jedi knights
Mark
"Maybe we should phone up Clark in Torquey and ask what console he reccomends"
Matt (loudly)
"You want an Xbox so you can play kotor!!"
Mark
"Can you explain the features?"
Reiner
"Can you change your trou?"
Matt
"Can you get new bags?"

www.gamestationrankings.com
Mark
"1, 2, 3, 4 stores worse than Clark's"
Reiner
"Well he's turned it around hasn't he?"
Mark
"So out of 270-odd stores he's 265th"

Wonder what he's been doing?
Reiner
"So I went to the shitter before work yesterday and when I stood up i felt a burning pain in my ass. I looked back into the bowl and I'd shat about a pint of blood. I thought I was gonna keel over at some point yesterday."

So final thoughts. At the end of the week if I end up working at Gamestation it would be great but if I don't then this has been a wasted week. At no point did I really feel like a part of the crew. If your interested in how the games industry works then I highly reccommend it for work experience but if not then don't bother. If you have a decent knowledge of games though then I would definately reccommend getting a job there. I'm still going to frequent the place after school and at weekends but not even seeing it from the other side will get me trading in games again. It was fun and it's given me an insight into my chosen industry but now it's time to move on and aim higher in gaming. Finishing Final Fantasy VII is my long term goal for now but the next group of truly awesome games and systems is coming along. The blog will return to normal now and so will I. This diary will remain here always and maybe at some point I'll print it off and give it to Gamestation. Right now I just want to return to being a normal gamer. Well, as normal as someone with an alter-ego like njsykora can ever get.

By The Way
I'm taking offers for the Smackdown vs Raw promo shirt I got.
I'm not taking offers for the Gamestation shirt.
The light on the DS pod does actually work.
It's not an act. Gamestation really do hate Game.
Reiner can hide the chicken (see day 4) like no-one else.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a very happy 5th birthday to Overclocked Remix. Started as a personal site by David 'djpretzel' Lloyd it grew and grew until it became one of the biggest sites on the net. OCR has helped to drag video game music kicking and screaming into the mainstream. With over 1500 mixes on site and 10000+ submissions every year it is an elitest group which accepts only the best of the best remixers.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY TO OC REMIX!!

Gamestation Diary: Day 4

1 day to go. At the end of tomorrow I want to say to Mark I don't want a discount, I want a sodding job. This week has been great so far and if I could carry on working on Saturdays then that would be amazing.

Mark was elated today for 2 reasons. The ratings for the whole company were put up today and the Hereford store is 3rd in the region. That wasn't what got Mark excited. All week everyone's been talking about someone called Clark. From what I've picked up from eavesdropping Clark was a total asshole who was very good at digging holes for himself when faced with a member of senior management. I won't go into everything now but he abbreviated everything and that got problematic. And annoying. Anyway he now manages the store in Torquey and when Mark checked the rankings he found Torquey last in the region and 265th out of 270 stores. Shaweeet!!

Moving back to the morning.I'd been using the front tills to check the prices of a bunch of new games. Unfortunately I'd screwed up. THAT was why we ended up £20 short yesterday. I tried to avoid the tills today. Using the PC when I had to process anything (I had to process quite a bit today). Things went on as usual but Reiner was being extremely regular with his bog breaks. Later he explained that he'd taken the shit of his life that morning and was having to canstantly check to see that his asshole wasn't bleeding. That's what he said anyway. I've learnt that Reiner is a twisted phycho with a grudge against life.

Today also saw the return of Lee. He decided to redesign the filing system. I.E using slimline cases instead of bits of card. Slick.

Anyway the turning point today came with Mark walking out the office with a wolly chicken on his finger. When Reiner spotted it HE WAS DELIGHTED!! This wolly thing formed a game known as FInd the Chicken. The idea is that someone hides the chicken somewhere it can be seen then everyone else searches for it. When someone finds it they hide it again without telling anyone. The only way they know if it's been found is by looking where they hid it. Risky if anyone sees them. This causes everyone to be fucking paranoid. Who's in control? Who's got the chicken? We all know where the chicken is using this system. There's a Stargate SG-1 case in the office. If it's upside down the chicken is about someone's person. If it's the right side up then it's been hidden (or deployed as Reiner and Lee insisted on saying). First Mark hid it (I never found out where) then we found out that Reiner had hidden it. We searched for 2 hours before the cut-off point of 1730 came and he had to show us where it was. The git had wedged it between the a shelf and the wall in the office. Visible but still hidden. Reiner gets to deploy it first in the morning.

So facing up time came and went, Mr Dyson came and went (Reiner got me to do it again). Afterwards I got asked to go up to the flats and find some black boxes. The door between the office and the stairs is covered by a metal grill when not in use. I came down to find it closed and locked. Reiner and Lee were pissing themselves laughing until Mark emerged from the bog with the keys. Gits. Tomorrow is the last day of this experience and if I come out of it with a Saturday job I'll be made up.

Tomorrow
The closing ceremony

Gamestation Diary: Behind the Scenes Special

Armed with a camera phone I took a few quick snapshots of the back sections of Gamestation. I'll go from front to back.

Behind the Counter
There are 2 sets of draws behind the counter. At the front there are the new game draws, bags, price stickers and the consoles that go on the TV. At the back are the used draws and the console that goes on the plasma. I haven't got any pics of it.

The Office
The nerve center as it were. The PC used for communicating with Gamestation HQ, the sink, the safe and the accessories that won't fit at the front.

The Toilet
Believe it or not this is where the consoles are kept. I got 2 pics of this.
The front view.


The back view (we got the bog roll delivery today. Apparantly Reiner uses it all)


The Back
In the back is the other nerve center. Containing the coffee, the microwave, the fridge and the coat hooks. The Dyson is also kept back here and so is a 3 for £22 poster. This puzzles me as that promotion is going on now.

Now we're going up these stairs to the 2 flats upstairs.


The Flats
In the flats is all the promo material that gets sent to the shop every single week. Usually as I mentioned yesterday it gets played with a bit before getting consigned to the flats. The Mercenaries pack, great though it was suffered the same fate. As did the DS cases. There's an 8-foot model of Master Chief up there too which seems surprising that no-one's nicked that yet. The exception to the rule is promo t-shirts which go under the sink in the office with the official Gamestation shirts.

Like this one.



So that's it. I'll try and get some pics for all areas over the next 2 days but thats it for now.

Gamestation Diary: Day 3

I'll get to the start of the day in a minute but I have to go with this story to start. This morning as usual the deliveries arrived and one stood out. The others were opened and sorted (reluctantly) as usual but this other one was different. Mark said that it was not being opened until everyone had taken their lunch break. So 1200 came and went and Reiner, Matt and Mark took lunch. When they came back I was forced to take my break by Matt and Reiner (they really wanted this package). Knowing that I shouldn't leave them waiting any longer than nessesary I nipped over to Greggs and grabbed 2 sausage rolls and a doughnut. When I got back Mark forced the 2 kids to wait until I'd put my coat away and eaten, I finished 1 of the sausages and put the other and the doughnut in the fridge as to be honest I wanted to see this. They were released on the package and they were like kids on Christmas day!! In went the hands and out came 5 PC and 20 Xbox copies of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. THEY WERE DELIGHTED!! From what I've gathered Reiner's woman has grown somewhat addicted to Xbox Live as he immediately checked the system requirements of the PC version. Again he was delighted as his PC would run it. "If it doesn't work I'm cancelling the Xbox Live" said he.

So back in time now to the start of the day. I headed into Tescos and picked up NME and a Mars bar. I headed to the store and arrived at exactly the same time as Reiner, Mark sent me out to inspect the store after everything was hung up and accounted for. After sorting 'The List' out I hitched up onto the back counter, had a bit of Kick and had a few minutes of quality time with the DS.

Things went as usual until 1100 when Matt walked in and Reiner buggered off for the 3rd fag break of the day. Things went as usual until after lunch (and KotOR 2) when a lot of buggered up prices led to a rescan. This involved checking the prices of every game, accessory etc to make sure everything was priced correctly. As an appeal to the Gamestation customers, LEAVE THE STICKERS ALONE!! I did the Xbox stuff first and did everything else later, the speed at which I did everything impressed Mark. It was all done by 1530.

Matt buggered off at 1500 leaving me with Reiner and Mark. And the area manager.

Yea.

Him and Mark were talking for about 5 hours. About what exactly I have no idea but he was fucking useless all day. I had some fun with the rescan though, seeing if I could fill my big red box with games totalling £1,000. According to Mark who put in a rare appearance he does something like that when a rescan is neccesary. I cheated eventually though and did 2 boxes with a value of £1, 807.

So with that out the way I finally got down to using the tills. Got the hang of it within 10 minutes which impressed Mark (again). I managed about £120 before everything tied up around 1730. Reiner then set about talking me through the close procedure including 'facing up' and Mr Dyson. Lee dropped in to see KotOR 2 which was pointless as he's working tomorrow. At around 1810 with £20 missing from the cash up (don't look at me) me, Lee and Reiner vacated the building. Reiner with a copy of KotOR 2 hidden in his jacket. Slick.

Later
Behind the Scenes at Gamestation. What's in the draws? What's in the back? What's in the Bog? What's upstairs?

Tomorrow
Where does this go?

Gamestation Diary: Day 2

Well as the day started we opened up the deliveries. The usual bunch of new accessories and games (10 copies of Sonic Mega Collection +?) as well as 2 promo packs. The first one to be opened was the Nintendo DS one. Oh dear. 10 adcubes with a slightly worrying slogan (touch me?!) and about 100 dummy, blank DS cases. What the hell is the point in that? They do look good though. After that lot was out the way we got to the next promo pack for Mercinaries. That showed how to make a promo. 3 military profiles on the characters, a big military map of North Korea, a dossier on the game's story and 3 $20 bills with the characters on them. That caused enough excitement to last about half an hour.

In today were Mark and Kev who I profiled yesterday as well as Matt and Reiner.

Matt
Top boy. Friendly and funny, he was my partner today in terms of finding the games and getting them out to the customers. Cut off at 3pm though.

Reiner
This guy is the complete opposite. Annoying, cold, unfriendly and lazy. Slouched in at 11am and did pretty much sod all day.

At around 12:30 the Nintendo rep came in and the moment I was waiting for arrived. The Nintendo DS. We got Super Mario DS and Metroid Prime: Hunters. Heading for a VS game in each against Matt (using the reps DS). At first startup you have to enter the date, time, your birthday and also give your machine a name. This name will represent you in multiplayer games so make it your gamer handle (e.g. my DS is gonna be called NJ while I named the Gamestation one gstation). The DS guy's named his Jenga for some reason. So Super Mario DS is pretty much a straight port of the N64's Mario 64 but with a few changes. There are now 30 more stars to find (that makes a total of 150) and you have to rescue 3 of the other playable characters from Bowser's clutches. Those 3 are Luigi, Wario and MARIO!! Yes the president of the Mushroom Kingdom has been captured by Bowser at long last. Because of this 'unfortunate' turn of events you now start the game as Yoshi. You also have to find a key first as having now gained some common sense Bowser's locked the castle door. Everything works well and the VS modes are great involving racing to collect stars that appear around one of the 4 arenas. I beat Matt 3-1.

Next up came the one I wanted. Metroid Prime: Hunters. This demo version of the game contains a single single player level as well as a fully functional multiplayer mode. It is also included with every new DS. Wow. The stylus control is slick, smooth and easy to get to grips with and shooting with the shoulder buttons quickly becomes second nature. In a battle with Matt I won 3-2. This is gonna be the reason to own a DS.

Overall the DS is a solid machine which carries on Nintendo's habit of making awesome handhelds. Again the link up with another machine is going to be key but this time it comes with the GBA game slot in the bottom. The example of this I was given is this. Pokemon Dash, a racing game coming out on launch day has 50 tracks from the start. That in itself is impressive but when a Pokemon game resides in the GBA slot a bundle of new tracks get added. Once all 4 Pokemon games for the GBA have been leeched for tracks there will be 320 tracks!

That dominated the rest of the day. A bit of processing went on with a rapidly filling PS2 bin and endless people asking whether Knights of the Old Republic 2 is out yet. IT'S OUT ON FRIDAY!

After Mark and Matt had gone for the day things calmed down a bit and I eventually made tracks at 5:20 borrowing a copy of Final Fantasy VII. I WILL FINISH IT!!

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 is out on Friday
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is out on the 4th March
The Nintendo DS is out on 11th March and will cost £99.99 with Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt and Pictochat
The PSP is out in May and will cost around £180

Tomorrow
What's in the toilet? What's in the fridge? What is the flat?

Gamestation Diary: Day 1

Welcome all, I'm here to tell you about what its like working at Gamestation. I was told it's the fastest growing retail chain in history today and to be honest it's hard to doubt that fact when you see the data. It was started in 2000 by a pair of college students on a £5000 loan and in the next 4 years it had grown from 1 store to over 200 across the UK. By the end of the year its expected that there will be 450 stores in the UK (7 are opening this month).

Anyhoo history gone here are the 3 guys I was working with today.

Mark (Manager)
Towards the end of the day he was on the phone a lot talking about some sort of training course at 9:30 tomorrow. Like everyone else he was slowing down towards the end of the day as fatigue set in. Whether that was related to the seemingly tedious stocktake is probable.

Kev (Ass. Manager)
Appropriate abbreviation let me tell you. Never failed to remind anyone that Gamestation was my 4th choice for work experience. Wasn't slowing down as much as Mark as the day wore on and continued to crack jokes (usually at my expense).

Lee
Pretty much my working partner for the day. In charge of scoping out the laydees in the store seemingly as he spent a lot of time by the surveillance cameras. I left him with over 100 PC games to file and price at the end of the day as I knew that I could go after 3:30 and he was working til 6. At least they won't be there tomorrow.

For most of today me and Lee were sorting, filing and pricing the huge stack of preowned games. Even Mark was impressed as we stormed through the PC bin, then the Xbox bin, then the PS1 bin and finally the retro bin. Then he pulled out a big box of Xbox games which kept us busy for an hour, then another smaller box of Xbox games to do before finally bringing out a huge box of about 200 PC games. The procedure for filing games goes like this.

1) Take out booklet and other documentation
2) Put disc in the booklet and put that lot in a small plastic bag
3) Put the bag in the filing draw ready to be pulled out when the game is bought
4) Stick a preowned price sticker on the now empty box
5) Scan the box on the price checker in the back and write the price on the sticker
6) With a sizable stack of filed and priced boxes head out front and put them on the shelves in no particular order
7) Repeat for another stack

I decided that a good stack size would be 15/20 games but throughout the day it varied from 6 games to 40 games (never again). Eventualy I think I settled on an average of 14.

Much hilarity came from when Lee reappeared from his lunch break. He'd been to the Reunion chippy and to Greggs (a bakers). He came back with...

Chips covered in cheese
A cheeseburger
A sausage and bean melt
A chocolate eclair
A flake fancy
A bottle of Sprite

Fat git.

Same time tomorrow guys. I need to recover as I'm knackered.

And yes. I did get a Gamestation shirt.

Tomorrow
No BS, the DS

Manga Reading

So with a complete volume of Naruto downloaded I set about reading the first chapter.

It took me half the chapter to remember what I'd been told about reading manga. You need to read from right to left instead of left to right as you would a standard comic. I only hope that I remember that through all 250-odd chapters. It's gonna take some time to adapt but I'm determined to get into manga reading.

Maybe that's why I didn't get the Ghost in the Shell manga I was reading last year.

......

It's over, it's finished. I have officially got the best work experience out of everyone at school. On Tuesday in Gamestation they are getting a Nintendo DS.

Bye bye work!

New Year's Resolution

OK, ok, I know it's February but it's still a (fairly) new year and I can still make a resolution. And here it is.

This year, the year of 2005 I will do everything in my power to fully understand, get into and be able to talk about an anime series.

That's the theory anyway, living in the UK you have no idea how hard that is without broadband. I'm having a go though and I thought I'd start with the manga. They're easily available online and (in theory) should be pretty easy to download on dial up.

Naruto Chapter 1
8.1mb
It's started well but that is no guarantee of success. With over 250 chapters to download I've got my work cut out. It's officially a w00tworld download project. This is a set of numerous downloads which add up to a bigger thing when put together. Like a remix project or a dA gallery binge but on a much larger scale.

New Year's Resolution

Double posts piss me off.

deviantART Addiction

When you first join dA and have a look around you'll see people talking about addiction to dA. You won't get that at first but after a few months there you will get it. I just spent about an hour straight on there and now I feel like my 3 favourite deviants have all punched me in the stomach at the same time. It's when you feel rejection like that from someone you really respect and admire that you wonder why you're bothering with these losers.

No-one like that will ever get on my links list here.

A Lesson in Hole Digging

A bit of advice for those embarking on work experience.next week (or any week). If you speak to your employer in depth for the first time before you start FOR FOX SAKE DON'T GIVE THEM AMMO!!

I was speaking to Kev today (assistant manager of Gamestation where I'm going) and I let slip a few key facts that are really gonna work against me. Here's the list.

1) I don't like Rainer (ugly stupid guy). He's working all next week. Shit.
2) I don't like GTA so they're planning to try and convert me (apparantly). Shit.
3) I'm a Liverpool supporter. Rainer supports Chelsea, Kev supports Man Utd and Dave (manager) supports Arsenal. Shit.
4) I own a Gamecube, subject to ridicule from everyone else. Shit.
5) I'm a blogger. Don't ask.

I've given the whole crew 5 silver bullets. If your following then you'll know that that's 1 bullet every day. The old poker saying springs to mind.

"You should never sit down to play without completing your last will and testament."

Adios my beloved fuckers.