Will

I bought a slot on the Lotus production line. Got to go to the dealer on Saturday to sign the final contract at which point it will be made into a car.

So far my day is going incredibly well, had the morning off to sort out my new car, got every extra I wanted for a very good price and I've been approved for their finance deal. All I need to do is sign the form and pay 10% and my car will be on the production line - absolutely cannot wait :) The 6 week wait is going to kill me though. Back at work now, few things for 2008 reporting to do but nothing too major.

Makes me very glad I'm not a young driver anymore. Your insurance must be higher than the value of the car!

Crikey that's painful, what do you drive?

Just about to leave the office (which is always good) and I've managed to finish some European Charts which are an absolute pain to put together - really glad that's over so I can do something a little more interesting tomorrow. Also managed to find my no claims certificate so I can get on the case of sorting out some new car insurance over the next couple of weeks. All in all a very good day, half day tomorrow to sort out my new car so I'm feeling pretty good atm!

The whole of Cranborne House? Good deal I think!

I've had a really good day today, got a car quote that came in at my target price. Now everything I get off it in negotiations will be a complete bonus!

I really think that new Ferrari looks fantastic. So clean and simple and the new size wings look good too. Even more excited for the coming season than I was before now.

Just had a little look and it all seems very nice. A bit too simple for me but sound execution of the idea imo. If you're going to try and add more info to each game be aware that without a LOT of users it will take an incredible amount of time to get much stuff on there. I tried it with IGDB (Latest design) and even a few years on its pretty bare for most titles. Still it helped me massively in getting my current job (the reason why it's still half finished). If you guys can keep up the good work then no doubt this will do very well for you.

A few £10 wins is all I've ever managed to get. Don't play much anymore but always get tempted when there's a big jackpot. I tend to put most of my money into premium bonds now, chance of winning a big prize and I can always get the money back.

Looking at my budget I seem to spend about £100 a month on food. Probably add a few meals out onto the top of that but it doesn't seem too bad to me.

Luckily devs don't have to rely on VG Chartz for their sales figures - they're way way out in almost all cases.

Well it's certainly up there, I've had to play most of them and while most of them are utter utter rubbish at least Carnival does what it sets out to well. I certainly can't think of any that are better than it although it has been a while since we last got any in - might have been some that improve on the idea over the last few months.

There's a few reasons it's sold well. It's the best of the mini game/party game on the system, budget price, and most importantly it's been well bundled with hardware.

Just had an email with some partner offers (No idea quite how we're a partner) for a Nissan dealer. They're selling off the 350z GT's for around £19k, down from £31k. I know its being replaced early next year but I've always liked them, very tempted to have a test drive and see if I can haggle them down even further. What do you guys think?

Here are mine, going through the list it's actually been quite hard to find games to fit in some areas. Pretty poor year bar a few exceptional highlights for me. I'm hoping 2009 will be much better. The Best Visuals In A Game SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL Not much competition to be honest. The Best Online Game Of The Year MARIO KART WII Not played anything else online, still the game I play the most across all platforms. Best Use Of Wii Controls In A Game WII FIT I'm still not convinced it's actually a game but I do love it. It's hardware like the Wii Board that is keeping Wii in the public eye. Best Soundtrack In A Game NIGHTS: JOURNEY OF DREAMS The prequel has the best soundtrack ever imo, this comes close and doesn't stray too far from the theme. Best Multiplayer Game Of The Year MARIO KART WII Very easy choice. Most Underrated Game Of The Year NO MORE HEROES Best single player game of the year imo, sales figures sadly don't reflect that. Suprise Game Of The Year - Can't say anything has surprised me this year. WiiWare Game Of The Year TV Show King Decent fun in multiplayer and I didn't think too much of the others. Virtual Console Game Of The Year - Not interested. Best Wii Game Of The Year MARIO KART WII Easy winner for me. Best DS Game Of The Year PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE Classic puzzles wrapped in a great game. Very pleased to see it getting the success it deserves. Best Nintendo Related Moment Of The Year The end of it Doing this has made me realise that on the whole it's been a pretty poor year, bring on 2009 I say. Most Anticipated Game Of 2009 House of the Dead: Overkill Looks great and lightgun games really suit the Wii. One of my favourite series getting a new title. Most Innovative Wii Game WII FIT Probably the only Innovative thing I've seen on the Wii this year. Most Innovative DS Game - I don't think the DS has had any innovation this year. Best Single-Player Experience NO MORE HEROES Probably my only one of the year. Worst Game of the Year STAR WARS CLONE WARS: LIGHTSABER DUELS Only basing this on games I've actually spent time with, this is just awful. Glad I didn't pay for it myself.

I really hope they get rid of the race fuel in qualifying if they are banning refuelling. It's bad enough right now when the strategies may be different, if they are all qualifying on the same strategy then it's going to defeat the point of promoting overtaking. Hopefully they will get back to qualifying on vapours. I'm glad they are banning refueling though, will help no end with on track excitement - much better than who can do the fastest stop excitement. I also hope the medal system comes in in some form or another.

I've seen this stat pop up a few times and can't for the life of me believe it's true. Is there any decent source to back it up? If only 5-6% of titles made a profit there wouldn't be much of an industry, I'm pretty certain we'd pull out if only 5 out of 100 titles we produce made a profit for us.

I had a fantastic day, didn't have much work to do which is always nice. Had a 3 hour lunch break and went for a test drive in a new car. Absolutely fell in love with it. Just need to work out how I'm going to buy the damn thing!

I'm really not at all sure what your saying here. Do you mean crap games don't sell? Or that they do? Carnival Games and Deca Sports are the 2 top (3rd Party) games in the most popular genre of game on the Wii. Carnival Games is (imo) the best one of the lot. Yes the marketing plays a big part but so does word of mouth and actual gameplay experience (round at a friends house, in a shop etc). If the games didn't deliver what people want from them then they would fail on this 2nd point. As much as we might think they are rubbish, the cold hard facts are that these games are what the vast majority of Wii owners want to play and they are happy with the current offerings in this area. Publishers are in this business to make money. To make money on the Wii you need mini/party game compilations. These can be very cheap to make so why waste money on a massive production? Better to keep it lean and maximise profit. HD games for the PS3 & 360 require big budgets and very high quality output, hence the need for bigger A+ development studios. It's not about putting crap on the Wii and great stuff on other machines, its about maximising potential profits from the different markets each machine can offer the company. If games can be proven to make money within the Wii market then there's a good chance they will be made. Publishers will always be weary about taking risks when there is a proven revenue stream to be had. You should also note that it's not necessarily easier to turn a profit with a game on 3 platforms as opposed to 1. It puts development costs up and if the game doesn't fit a particular platform then this can quite simply be money down the drain.

Just come back from my test drive in the Elise, my God what a car! In love with it even more after this afternoon. Zipped up to 100 in no time (I imagine, obviously I only went up to 70.), great handling, engine sounds simply fantastic and the ride was awesome. Come the new year that bad boy is mine.

Hey Jamba! Only just noticed this thread, glad your settling in here. I live in Ealing too, whereabouts are you? Whenever you fancy that drink just let me know.

Does it really matter that there is better games out there though? I'm not a fashion expert, there's probably much better clothes available than what I buy at the same price but if they do the job for me and I enjoy them then is that really such a big problem? Ubi's marketing and awareness in the casual gamers mind is good enough for them to pick up these games, if other companies are failing then Ubisoft can't be blamed simply for succeeding in this segment of the market. I don't think Ubisoft's games are of a lower quality than other publishers either. Which games that are aiming for the same markets do you think are so much better?

Most of the people these games appeal to actually enjoy them though. They're giving them some simple waggle fun and that's exactly what they want from the Wii. They might not live up to what you or I would call a good game but as long as they are fulfilling the needs of the intended user that's ok. People will pay what they think something is worth, if full price is pulling in the required amount of buying then that's fair enough. Publishers have to make their money somewhere.

This seems to be a massive issue for this industry right now. Lots of so called specialist courses that don't actually teach people the relevant skills they need for the jobs that are going. It's still early days for these courses so hopefully they will improve with time, it's a shame though as for most people they'd be better off with a standard programming or art etc. degree with transferable skills they can bring to the industry.