Digita1Ninja

I’m painfully aware that I’ve not actually posted anything in almost a week! I’m not entirely sure what crazy energy reserves I’ve been running on lately but they clearly weren’t the sort that allowed me to do any actual logical thought processing. That said, I’ve also been struck dumb by the sheer weight of titles that have been released in the last few weeks and beyond. Allow me to elaborate, the last few days I’ve been playing Gears of War 2, this is to be played alongside World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (not sure how long this will get played for), alongside Mirror’s Edge that comes out on Friday, and then the week after I’m looking at the new Tomb Raider game.

That to me represents a pretty solid list of games to be playing over the course of 6 weeks, assuming a week to two weeks a game that sees me good till Christmas. However, and it is one almighty however, that doesn’t include a whole host of other games that are more than worthy of attention. It leaves out: Dead Space, Red Alert 3, Endwar, Farcry 2, Fable II, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, Call of Duty 5 & Left 4 Dead.

It’s insane, there is really not enough time to try out the games. Now obviously some will be better than others and not worthy of the hype some will also not fall under personal preferences of “games I’d like to play” but still that’s an extraordinary number of games to come out in the same 8 - 10 week period. Edge-online ran a light piece on the “Holiday Crush” I understand the Christmas mentality for holiday sales, etc but this year does seem worse than others, last year was more a good title a week where as now it seems to be 2-3 good titles a week. 

It’s awesome that so many companies are making really good games and is something that can only benefit the consumer in the long run. However it can’t help but feel a little non-sensical at times, I don’t think the release schedules are going to change though and Christmas buying will continue to be the pinnacle target for all games publishers, with good reason obviously! It’s a proven model and has continued to work for the last 10 years, but I’m curious to see what sales numbers will look like at the end of the year after such a crowded Christmas. But then my games coming out in April so what do I care…

It’s over now, America voted for change and we can but hope the promise that it brings is realised. Will he reach out and bridge the gaps that have been created by the Bush administration, the credit crisis and more? I believe he can, especially if his acceptance speech is anything to go by.

I offer nothing more, need offer nothing more than to tip my hat at his speech writer and go to bed with the warm sense of what’s to come. 

Meanwhile in Russia they are moving short range missiles closer to Poland and talking of extending the length of term that a president can remain in office…echoes of history?

Watch this and feel temporarily lifted:

 I heard a rumour that there might be an election going on somewhere, I believe the USA. I am of course kidding, the current USA election is probably one of the most widely covered on the Internet and across news channels around the world for quite sometime. The advent of web 2.0 (cliched term I realise) has certainly given this election an entirely different look and feel. Twitter is a blaze with people encouraging others to vote, speaking out that they have voted, etc Facebook is letting people volunteer their status to the vote, there are adverts all over it encouraging people to get out and vote. Without looking through the entirety of the net, I’m positive there will be hundreds of thousands of blogs written out about voting day and the run up to the election. In fact more to the point, I’m sat watching the BBC coverage to see them interview someone who’s title was simply “blogger”. You can see two of them sat side by side with mac books in front of them typing away frantically. How much they have to write and say at this point I have no idea.

I’m just amazed how much everyone has been caught up by all of this, I think that’s a sign of the Bush affect. There is no denying that Bush for both good and bad reasons, and the current economic climate has raised the profile and importance of US politics around the world. Plus he was an incredibly easy target to lambaste with his “Bushisms” and other faux pas. Also unlike the last election you’re at least guaranteed something different this time around. 

McCain representing continuity, a steady hand, experience vs Obama the younger option, standing tall, bringing something new and fresh to US politics. For me I’m a huge Clinton fan, he wasn’t perfect by any means and there was plenty that he did wrong but there was lots he did right. For that I’m a believer in the democratic way, I have some concerns that Obama may be overly liberal. He could cross that line by bringing government interference a little to close to home, but I still think it’s a better choice than the war mongering and overly zealous nature of the Republicans. That and the craziness that is Palin scares the hell out of me, the thought of a guy that’d dodged death 6 times (I believe) becoming president and likely to die on the job leaving her in charge…god help us all.  I know that a lot has been said about the Obama’s colour, but is it wrong that I really don’t care about that? I understand that it’s historic, progressive for the USA, and could play a part. But as much as I love witnessing and being “involved” in history, it’s the policies and change in ethos that he represents that I’m such a fan of. 

The role that money, biggest spend in election history I believe, and tech have played in this election is incrediable. Huge voter turn-out, more being written and said than previous elections! People are talking, people are caring, it’s fantastic you’re vote is important and it’s brilliant that people were so invested in this election. 

Anyway this isn’t my election to be a part of and one day maybe people in the UK will start to add a little USA style pomp and showmanship to their political campaigns it would be great. I’m now just going to sit back and enjoy the show. It’s McCain 34 to Obama 103 for now. 

I like that thelondonpaper today ran a guide on all the different news channels, who was presenting, where from, and what “razzmatezz” they were bringing to the floor. Thus tonight I start with BBC before bouncing ITV1 and then a brief dabble in SKY news.