Image of the Week: Win A Dream Holiday
My mate posted this on Facebook. I thought this was ironic due to the fact this paper came out only a couple of days after the Costa Concordia tragedy happened (on Friday 13th January, woo00ooo), and just above the photo of the sinking cruise ship they’ve got a big red headline offering to win a dream holiday. Mmm, I think not. I wonder if they got in trouble for this ?
***** 4nim4l *****
Want to Win Image of the Week?
Send me the URL to your image, or email me the file as an attachment if you must. I’m on Facebook and Twitter and my email is mi@machiavelliid.com. Give me whatever info you like about you or your image. That’s it.
[No guarantees that I'll ever publish it, or that I'll repeat what you say about it word-for-word. But if I like your image or your thinking, it's in.]
Related articles
- Image of the Week: Window disclaimer by Karen Neoh (machiavelliid.com)
- Cruise ship’s plan posted on Facebook before disaster (vancouversun.com)
Gun sales banned for Xbox Live Avatars
I’ve just found out on OXM online that the Gears of War Lancer and Hammerburst avatar items are no longer available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Apparently a new policy came into effect for all gun-like avatar accessories on the Xbox Live Marketplace from January 1, 2012.
If you’ve already bought guns for your avatar, you should still have those, but it looks like you won’t be getting any more. What a load of bollocks!
I am an adult Xbox 360 gamer and I don’t see the point of this ban. They put age limits on these gun games so why don’t they have the age limit thing on the avatar items if it’s that much of a problem? That way the people who don’t want their children playing around with TOY guns will be able to stop their kids’ avatars holding pictures of guns too. Lol.
I have six children and think it’s fair enough people don’t want their kids thinking its OK to play with real guns. Some parents think it’s bad to play with toy guns too. It’s not real when you play these GAMES. I mean come off it what’s next, are they going to ban kids from playing with toy guns and water pistols at all hmmm?
At the end of the day the avatars are only pictures and it’s safe to say kids have seen pictures of guns before, all over the place. And if they can still see guns on some Xbox Live avatars, given that guns already bought won’t be taken away, then what’s the point?
Army ads show men with guns all the time and show them as heroes – kids see that on TV all the time completely independent of anything Microsoft might do. I personally support the military because they’re sacrificing a lot to protect us, but if seeing pictures of people with guns is so bloody bad for kids, then surely everyone should stop advertising that way? Don’t be daft.
I’ve got a poster on our wall at home of Call of Duty characters holding guns and I don’t believe it does any psychological harm to my kids to see that piece of artwork. BIG DIFFERENCE between real life and games, BIG DIFFERENCE between interactive games and pictures.
***** 4nim4l *****
Related articles
- OXM story: Report: Gun sales to be illegal for Xbox Avatars starting New Year’s Day.
- Marvel Releases Superhero Items To Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace (splashpage.mtv.com)
- Xbox Live Avatar Marketplaces gets tattoos (vg247.com)
Spiderman Shattered Dimensions [Xbox 360 Game Review]
I’ve had this game out on rental for a while now and I really like it. There are a few glitchy bits to this game though. The worst of the glitches happens all the bloody time through the whole game whilst you’re swinging around – you go through things that you shouldn’t, and not only is the physics bad, but your view bounces from side to side like mental as well which can disorient you. It’s funny at first but got very annoying after a while.
On the electro level you get locked in a chamber where water starts to rise and is electrified, and you have to grab workmen and take them to turn the valves off. When I went to pick them up I had a problem, though – it wouldn’t let me pick the workmen up and even though I turned the console off to restart it, it still kept happening. So I cleaned the disk, and I’m glad I did because that sorted out the problem completely. It wasn’t a fault in the game, it was just some dirt!
It’s great fun to play Spiderman, even with the occasional glitches it’s one of those games that keeps you playing, if you know what I mean. You have loads to upgrade as well. With things like power ups and fighting moves as well as web moves, there’s too many upgrades to list so you’ll have to look it up :-P or get the game to see for yourselves.
I also like the fact you’re pretty much straight in there with the fighting – once you get through the gibberish that woman gives you at the beginning. She will pop up now and then to give you more useful info, but she just bores me at the start cos I want to get in there and get playing!
You won’t be disappointed with this game. From my point of view this is almost as good as the Batman titles (I would have said even better if it didn’t have a few glitches and minor niggles). But that’s just my opinion and I’m a big Spidey fan so I might be a bit biased. Definitely worth playing, even if you’re only hiring it like me :)
***** 4nim4l *****
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Burnout Crash will be Kinect enabled – but will it be good?
I am definitely going to get Burnout Crash, as I have Kinect already, so I’ll let you know if it’s crap :D.
I am excited. But at the same time, I know how it goes when they bring out a new version of a game I love. Here’s one example: Burnout Revenge was the most fun driving game of its time for me. But when they brought out Burnout Paradise, I thought it was SHIT — only my opinion!
It just seems like sequels often ruin the originals and create a less impressive track record. Is it just me, or do most people feel that way when they hear about a new game sequel being released?
*****the 4nim4l*****
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- Burnout Crash is Why Paradise Was Crash-less (1up.com)
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- ‘Burnout Crash’ Is Top-Down, Arcade-y, Kinect-y (multiplayerblog.mtv.com)
- Burnout Crash fall release re-confirmed by EA after erroneous UK posting (digitaltrends.com)
Hard times getting to see my kids
I have six children with three different women. Some would say I’m a glutton for punishment, but hey ho, I’ve made my bed and all that. I’m happy to have 6 great kids but I’m frustrated at how difficult it is to get to see all of them.
4 of them live hours away from me with ex #1, because she wanted a new start and decided it would be better for them to get out of the place where we both grew up. But it’s not, I can’t afford to visit them as often as I’d like and they have an unpredictable lifestyle.
I only really get to see them on school holidays and even then their mother makes that difficult. She punishes our children for being naughty with her by stopping them from coming to visit their dad, or goes the opposite way and tells me I have to take this child or that off her hands because they’re misbehaving not because it’s their turn. That’s just unfair and messes with everyone’s heads.
I have got a 6 year old boy with ex #2 and have only just won a court case after 2 years to have regular contact with him. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but my ex wanted to cut me out of his life completely and she held everything up for as long as she could. I’m just glad the courts could see that my ex only stopped me seeing him out of bitterness.
I feel for anyone who has to jump through hoops to see their kids like I did and I say stick with it, don’t let anyone make you think about giving up. Your children are a part of you. I can’t understand people who walk away from their kids, when I’ve had such a struggle to see mine, and I can’t understand people who stop their ex from seeing their kids without reason either.
If you’ve been through fatherhood issues of your own, feel free to tell me about it, and you can always get good advice from Dad.info.
***** the Animal *****
Image credit: WorldIslandInfo.com
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Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Xbox 360)
Overall rating: 1/5
Best points: lots of playable characters; controller configuration
Worst points: no 3D gameplay; can’t see opponent during special moves
I hired Marvel vs Capcom 3 from Lovefilm rather than buy it outright. I was looking forward to this title coming out, but was really disappointed after having a few goes on it. I hoped it would’ve had the same type of stuff as Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe had going for it, with 3D fighting and Freefall fighting. But Marvel vs Capcom 3 is all 2D gaming until you do your special moves…
Then it’s still just 2D gameplay, really, but with graphic effects that make it look more three dimensional. You can still only move in one straight line. The whole screen lights up around your avatar on a black background, and you can’t see the other player’s avatar because it gets hidden by flashy lighting. So you can’t tell if you’re hitting your opponent, and they can’t see their own avatar at all!
Me and a few of my friends got very bored very quickly, and this game reminds me of the 1990s Street Fighter days. I still think the original Street Fighter games are quality, but games nowadays need to be moving on – that was like over 10 years ago. Is it me, or are they going backwards not forwards with their thinking on some of these new games?
I know it’s easy for someone like me to comment on someone’s pride and joy of a game and slag it down, but it’s true: I think it’s crap. Gutted.
***** the Animal *****
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