Flaight

Went to Yo! Sushi branch the other day out of curiosity... and it's Rubbish. I don't consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the obvious, absolute and utter rubbishness of their food is phenomenal - they set a new standard. The sushi rice is soggy and tasteless, wasabi is powdery, the fish is badly cut, old and flabby. Miso soup is salty and artificial, deep fries are greasy and overcooked, and sauce taste like a chemical product. Rolls are nasty in the continuing toilet theme, more appropriate in the sewers. I cost me 25 quid too for all that bollox. For that you can have a feast of a proper Japanese food at the above-mentioned Sakura restaurant. Frankly, I feel like murdering the founder of Yo!Sushi stores. What a massive, nation-wide scam they are. I honestly include them among the worst rogue traders in this country. The only positive I can think of is the fun element of seeing the food circling around the store. I'm saddened for various reasons. First, someone attempts to profit from this sort of scam. but more crucially there are too many of us who lack taste buds to realise they are toilet. 10 years ago I would've fallen in that category myself. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll try that Satsuma place next. Will get back to you later

I agree that music isn't the best way, thou interest in lyrics can't be harmful. The only ones I remember now are Utada Hikaru (sang FF10 theme if I'm not mistaken) and Morning Musume, which reminds me of musicals like Cats and Starlight Express (well, sort of). Jpop is quirky, that much I can say. I love the way they tend to emphasize strong melodic tunes.

Wii completely agree! Do wii understand or not understand? If wii don't understand wii must say wii don't understand otherwise wii don't understand if wii understand or don't understand. Do wii agree?

They do say ii represents the controllers, as well as implying people (or 2 people) gathering, where the vertical line is the body and the dot is the head. That's very Japanese actually. They've got a pictorial writing system where each character is an evolved picture. Culturally too, they like to use pictorial expressions more aggressively than we do here (like with all the elaborate ^_^ sort of faces). So, to me, I can see where they're coming from. Still I agree it does sound funny. My immediate reaction was 'wee wee'. On the other hand, I think we'll get used to it. I remember a lot of people were laughing off the name "Final Fantasy" in early days. People said it sounds like a cheap porn flick. We ain't laughing now thou are we? EDIT: My point was this - the trick is to see Wii as a picture, not as a word. At least that's how they would see it. We, on the other hand, can only see it as a word which represents the sound 'wee'. A bit tragic in some ways, but in other ways very VERY interesting. I'm beginning to like it. You just have to see it a bit "differently" from the rest of the crowd, which very much goes with the whole revo concept.

Few hundred pounds a meal!?? my god no wonder you prefer that place. I think we're in a different league here, I was talking more in line of £10-25 restaurants. Where in central london is Satsuma exactly? Oh and I went to that wagamama for noodles after reading this thread, it isn't very good to me. It comes across more like a japanese themed western restaurant, serving food japanese style. That sort of thing. I guess it's a good introduction at first.

Anyone been to Sakura Restaurant in London? I found it accidentally the other day and I love it there. The food is good and it's "cheap" for a japanese restaunt of this level. They have a huge variety. They seem to be open throughout the afternoon and evening, but I think they have a very small menu from around 2 to 5. but otherwise they serve millions of authentic dishes. I could go there every day if I lived nearby. It's just off Regent street. Get off at Oxford Circus and walk down Regent street, then turn in towards Hanover Square. I think the actual road is called Hanover road, but not sure. One down side is that its such a popular place they have a quick circulation and are hasty. So it's no good for relaxing but that's the price you pay for good value I suppose. Sushi there is brill and relatively cheap. The sushi box crap you get in Waitrose tastes like a pile of poo in comparison. Another take-away sushi place I found is Japan Centre on Piccadilly road, like 1 min walk from the statue of eros. They sell cheap boxed sushi in the basement. You'll never buy the supermarket sushi crap once you taste them.

Actually, that reminded me. There was an article long ago around the time FF4 was out in Japan in which the devs said one of the probs they encoutered was the limited expression of their world in the existing technology. I recall that it wasn't specifically in reference to FF3, but their development philosophy in general. At the time there were 2 big mainstream console RPGs, Dragon Quest series and Final Fantasy series, with contrasting philosophy. Where DQ was successful in providing players the playing ground to forge "their own journey" and enjoy the "proactive experience", FF's philosophy was more on "showing the story" and thus players enjoying the "passive experience". In theory it's like Books (proactive) vs Films (passive), respectively, in terms of the audience's involvement. Because of this, where DQ didn't suffer much from lack of flash graphics, FF did. So when SNES and subsequently PS1 came out, the devs jumped on them as they provided a much more suitable tool to recreate their imagination - afterall their objective was to "show the theatrics". That's very much dependent on the power of multimedia. Anyway, a bit useless but interesting story.

I don't know if anyone else have gone thru this. You know the Official Nintendo Magaizne. They offered a free game if you subscribed? The first time, I subscribed online. I wanted the free game, so I called the Future Publishing (the distributer) to see if my game is coming. They said there are no gifts associated with my subscription...! They put on the front page that they will give away a free game. Dirty buggers, luring customers with free games yet they aren't giving one. So, I went to buy the 1st issue at WHSmith. I cut out the subscription page of the magazine and subscribed again thru post, whilst making arrangements at the bank to refund the first subscription's direct debit. Yesterday, the free game arrived! But, cut long story short, due to some complications I failed to get a refund for the first 9.72 refund (direct debit). So for the first 3 months I'll be receiving 2 copies of ONM BASTARDS!!!! On the other hand, I got a brand new Pikmin 2 (which I criminally missed the 1st time). I "lost" 9.72 quid because of the "double subscription", but it works out that I "bought" Pikmin 2 brand new for 9.72. Weird, but are you with me. So I guess I came out of it OK. It's a bit annoying though. P.S. When cancelling Direct Debit with Future Publishing LTD before the 1st debit, go to your bank and BLOCK the direct debit. Once you are charged, they seem to use technicality to block refunds. I learned this the hard way thru all this.

Yea the text is very legible on micro. It's so bright and clear, in fact the brightest setting will kill you from too much electromagnetic energy. I hardly ever play it on max brightness. But that might change as summer approaches and outside gets brighter.

I like throwing one of those mini Cadbury Creme Eggs into my mouth and chew most of the way, then gulp it down with some mouthfuls of cuppa tea. The only thing is, it's SO easy to eat a dozen eggs in the space of 5 minutes or so... can't be good for you.

lol. yes, that sounds funny. I wouldn't like to ask how retro-lover found out that his mother is lying in bed awake, in the dark. ... God, I must stop thinking. Fast.

Thanks BlueStar - so it's a 'no' then. Heh, I'm relieved That bit had me peeing in my pants a bit earlier

If the flight number is right (the last section), I find that spooky. Very spooky. As for the rest, I think it's a forced coincidence. It actually reminds me of the Bible Code, where you can systematically pick up important words vertically and diagonally. It was shown that you can do that with any book. I reckon you could pick another number - say, 13 - and perform similar calculations just so long as you go through many of them.

There has been a big delay in the construction of Wembley Stadium. Surprise surprise! And now there is a row between Multiplex (builders) and Wembley National Stadium Limited (WNSL - it's basically the england Football Association side). Multiplex signed a contract for a fixed price. For delays, Multiplex must pay out £140,000 per day as a penalty. Well done to the FA, I think it's a sweet deal in this era when nothing is done on time and usually the estimate is never met. Also, the stadium as it stands has already gone over-budget on Multiplex side. The FA needn't pay anything though. Now Wembley builders deny delay blame, by saying that design changes mean that a delay is bound to occur. DUH! is all I can say to that, they should've taken that into consideration when writing up the contract, surely? The contract should reflect such issues in the first place and it's rather lame to see them trying to wiggle out of it now. Cut long story short, basically Multiplex is claiming that the contract is void because of design changes, but apparently the design changes were submitted to the FA by Multiplex. To me, it's turning out to be a sadly stupid story, so stupid I doubt you would even find such a plot in a soap opera. More details may emerge later on, but it comes across that Multiplex cocked it up. What do you think lads?

Understandable reaction in some ways, but to me it's a form of paranoia. If you thought about it for a bit, you would know that sort of thing is the last thing terrorists would do. Or allowed to do. I apologize if it's offensive to some, but I will not lie to myself - it comes across so stupid to the point that I found myself laughing a bit at the level of paranoia.

Personally, I've always felt that "faith related healing" has a huge dependancy on the mindset of the patient. This isn't limited to a certain religeon, but to all from what I know. One thing I feel is that there is an undiscovered medium which is a function of "human mind", which we haven't detected yet. We have discovered equipment to detect the likes of Radio Waves, Ultra Violet, etc... but I think paralell to the EM spectrum, there is a spectrum (or many of them), which can explain the existance of lost souls (ghosts) and healing etc etc. To put it another way - if you went back in time to Year 1500 and told people you have a "Radio" which can communicate over many miles, people would either laugh at you or kill you for witchcraft. We ain't laughing now though, are we?

lol Nintendork, that's awe inspiring. but I can't imagine BOTHERING to make an egg when drunk. I guess I get too lazy. "I can't be bothered" is the cliche.

Hmm. What cheers me up when everything is crap? Many things, depends on ... dont know. It just depends Depends on feelings. Sometimes alcohol. sometimes gaming. sometimes watching My Family on UKTV Gold. Oh and more recently listening to Hello Project music! My new found relaxation technique.

Yeah that is quite right Emo. I've rephrased that to "both ends go too far resulting in extremism". Well, you know what I meant. I think it was clear enough from the flow of the post at any rate.

I almost forgot about this thread, but I think that's SUCH a good point. There is a double standard in some ways, and often criticism will come whichever-way we go. It's a catch-22 situation for the male popoulation. Feminists will often complain whatever way it turns out. It's almost as if the facts are unimportant; it's driven for the sake of putting down the male side, and some people would go a great distance to seek out & fashion an argument which suit their needs. At least in this instance, I feel that there isn't a problem - but it's made into a problem by a human perception. An artificial creation of a problem for the sake of making a point.

Putting aside the moral argument of the poll for now... It's worth mentioning that there are some of us who are rather sick and tired of "normal" gaming. Honestly. Looking back the last 20 years, it's ultimately all the same. A lot of the basic ideas came in the 80s. 90s saw the graphical improvement of 80s idea. Sure, there have been some new areas, but push comes to shove nothing has changed in terms of gaming concept. Revolution fascinates me because it breaks away from that old mould. There are huge numbers of people out here, particularly in their 20s and 30s who share this sentiment. I for one don't want to see the same old repetition in the next decade. And dare I say, 360 and PS3 have the danger of doing exactly that. Still, I will have all 3. I'm too much of a game lover to ignore any.

The sword action bit felt like Children Of Mana. When I saw that bit I almost shouted "Ahh that bit is identical!". Mana series concept came from Zelda so I guess that's understandable. Still, I can't help but feel that Phantom Hourglass is a much more complete and varied experience knowing Nintendo. I mean, what the hell is those drawning on touchpad!?? That ship action too. My god I can't wait

O Ic... ok thanks Tom, didn't realise that I must say I haven't been fascinated by them that much so far, I'm too much of a pop person perhaps. As for Wiki, I keep forgetting it I've come across some odd stuff there so the more serious the more I void Wiki. That mindset leads me to carry on forgetting it when I really should remember it.

Can someone expand on this? I'm wondering whether there's a possibility that Sony may be adding a new component inside, which allows such mechanism for FHC in the future (though the PS3-mote itself may not come out for few years). Is there an element that the console itself needs to be "ready" for such an addition? I can't answer that myself as I know next to nothing about the science behind revmote. On one hand there's NES lightgun (hurrah!), on the other hand there's this revmote. (btw how did NES lightgun work?)

About gorillaz, something I've always wanted to ask - I know Blur deals with the instrumental side, but are they singing as well?