Justice

Second moot last night. We lost (as was the case on Tuesday) but it means that the week from hell is almost over. just my first draft dissertation to go, and that is pretty much done (or at least as done as I can be bothered to make it.

I celebrated by reading the latest 52 and Grant Morrison's Batman, while slouching in my pants on the sofa. I can really relate to Bruxe Wayne's playboy lifestyle. Am now currently occupied by how best to piss away my afternoon.

There are a number of options. Ireland and England will be on test match special, so I could complement the shamefull stomping that Ireland are going to dish out with a spot of Brian Lara Cricket. However, I've also come into possession of a copy of Zelda for the Wii and the first God of War... Decisions, decisions.

Bright spots on the horizon

ITEM - The new Pirates of the Caribbean Trailer is out on Youtube

ITEM - Maximo Park and - unexpected - Money Mark albums out too.



What a time to be alive.

Oh dear...

Well, that's one Saturday evening down the pan. Shelling out money for 300 seems insulting, even with a student discount. The whole film's a bit of a mess, and though I've never read the Frank Miller comic book it seems as though the sum total of work by Miller and the writers of the film is entirely negative, serving only to massively diminish a strong dramatic core - Battle of Thermopylae after all having a fair degree of resonance in its own right. Instead what's left is a shoddy mess with some barely relevant pootling around with the politics of Sparta and countless speechifying on freedom and servitude that comes completely devoid of substance. Even worse, it's not even possible to say that the results are terribly impressive. Well, in an abstract technical sense I suppose they must be, but I was entirely unmoved by the CG action sequences which came across as boring and repetitive, while the digital backdrops just robbed the film of any sense of place, leaving it generic ancient past / fantasy. Poor job all round I'm afraid.

Piece of Ps

Don't want to weigh in too heavily in the fanboy wars (but given I own (or 'pwn') a 360 and Wii my loyalties should be pretty clear), however, couldn't help but feel slightly irritated when tracking down my release day copy of Brian Lara Cricket (40 nicker very well spent - having just taken Sri Lanka all out for 21) to see that in all the big Oxford Street stores the 360 demo consoles have been shut down, with only Sony (not just PS3 but PSP and Singstar) up and running. Call me cynical (or perhaps realistic in the wake of Sony's PR meltdown) but with all the buzz about retailers having massively over-ordered the PS3 it seemed a little desperate.

That said some impressive huddles around the cash desk, especially in Game, where I was witness to a touching vignette of a couple, the man (late thirties, going on twelve) scampering around choosing his new games, and the woman, packing a carrier bag loaded with a 360 and at least 6 games, haranguing a sales clerk who timidly said that they were no longer taking trade-ins. Happy ending I'm glad to say - they got their PS3 - and way short of the queues and shootings in America, but still a little crazy to experience firsthand.

Work/life balance

Have tentatively reached some sort of balance of terror with law work at present, just doing enough to stave off the demons without doing so much as to run myself into the ground as has been the case.

This has also opened up a bit of time for Phoenix Wright, which I justify on the grounds that it's basically the same as studying for the law. It's still a fine game, but some of the puzzles are a little obtuse - not in the lucasarts sam and max / day of the tentacle sense, where totally random objects could hold the solutions to in-game puzzles - but in an equally frustrating way where the ends are clear but the means to get there are far from logical. In other words the player may basically be right about what to do, or how to pick apart a witness' testimony but just doesn't know which evidence to submit to do this. Hands-up, I confess that part of this is due to my own ineptitude, but there's also the slightly skewy legal world in which the game operates. I'm not expecting a hardcore advocacy simulator (from my own experience that would be suicidally boring) but perhaps a better explanation of the in-game rules re submissions and evidence.

Also enjoying The Trap. Nothing like a good pessimistic conspiracy theory.

Legal issues

My lack of free time to piss away on videogames is primarily due to this dash tricky law type career path I'm embarked on. It's now reached the stage where (in addition to writing a dissertation, making my application to chambers for a pupillage, preparing for two moot mock trial thingys and trying not to go on a screaming kill rampage) I have to choose a place of study for the BVC.

I complain, but the fact I have a choice at all is A Good Thing, demand for places being what they are. I have offers from the College of Law (my current place of study) and the Inns of Court School of Law based at City University. It's a toss-up in many ways as just having done the BVC is really enough for most pupillage providers. However, as with anything to do with getting a foot on the ladder at the Bar, it's a case of trying to get an advantage no matter how marginal, so this is quite a big choice. Therefore my research has been of the most searching and in-depth kind.

This is the page that wikipedia threw up last time I checked (may well have been 'corrected' by now). I don't think people think too highly of the ICSL BVC.

Brief Respite

Bit of a quiet period at the moment, before my mooting kicks off again and before dissertations are due in, so I'm taking advantage of this with some proper Battlefield 2 action. It's still a cracking game, and it takes a game like this to really make you appreciate the niceties of map design, and the importance of balance and layout.

In other news Dead Rising might be going co-op. Awesome!

Apologies

Not posted in over four months! Get in there! Afraid this is largely - nay entirely - due to the hefty work schedule of the law student. This has sadly impinged on all aspects of my leisure time, not helped by aforced house move a few weeks ago. However, I'm settled in now, I've got wireless online (thanks to the great beauty and power of the Apple Airport base station) and so will endavour to get this site up and running again. It's all about getting into the habit so let's see how things go...