So according to new research, one in 10 Britons spend a total of 14 years in front of the television in their lifetime.
Now, I'm pretty sure that everyone will agree with me that that's a ridiculously HUGE amount of time.
Sure like every other student I went through the Neighbours and Hollyoaks stage but jeez? Is there THAT much on TV nowadays that's worth wasting your life over?
I mean, it's like the movies... give it a certain amount of time and everything gets re-made. So all you end up watching is a re-hash of something you've inevitably watched before - and probably hated then too.
Quite frankly I can't find anything worth watching on television nowadays. I'm no longer addicted to switching on the box religiously at the same time every week to watch the Sopranos or 24. I buy or borrow the boxsets.
I find that anything actually worth watching is on premium rate channels which you have to pay for. Now I'm not talking about The Fantasy Channel, I'm talking about Sky One which boasts 24 and Prison Break among its major crowd pullers.
It's the same with football matches. Aside from the occasional Champions League game airing a team that I don't support, all the matches are on Sky or Setanta.
I'm fast losing the will to have a TV at all. But then there's the small problem of you needing a TV licence in order to watch DVDs. Pants isn't it?!
How long will it be before the Government decides to try and slap a tax on viewing programmes or footie matches online?
The other week I was amazed to find live coverage of an England game from a foreign feed. Ok the quality wasn't brilliant (blamed largely on my pants internet connection) but it was still watchable - and best of all FREE.
Here's the best of the last fortnight's new games releases:
Title: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Platform: PS3
Genre: Action
Price: £39.99
Hit Count: 4/5
A trip to the dark side goes very well rewarded in The Force Unleashed, offering gamers and Star Wars fans alike another fantastic glimpse at the interstellar world first conceived more than 30 years ago. Opening action sequences are simply mind-blowing as you take on the role of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, and while later levels may not always reach such dizzy heights, the consistent awe-inspiring presentation throughout ensures you’ll forgive and forget the odd glitch. The in-game physics allow you to develop your Force powers to truly devastating effect and, with two alternative endings to uncover, there’s every chance you’ll want to play through this twice, such is the fun there to be had.
Title: Yakuza 2
Platform: PS2
Genre: Action
Price: £39.99
Hit Count: 4/5
Once more you are plunged into the violent Japanese underworld where respect and honour are all. Well, almost. Add to that great graphics, twice as much to explore and an improved fighting engine, and you have a pretty darn powerful brawler that will immerse you in a dark, shadowy world where only the strongest will survive. The city streets and illicit haunts of Japan’s nightlife district are beautifully recreated, making this a vibrant, true-to-life world to explore. And with the ability to fight numerous enemies at once with less load times and smoother camera angles, the whole experience feels super-smooth, making this an essential purchase on Sony’s old-stager PS2.
Title: Mount and Blade
Platform: PC
Genre: RPG
Price: £24.99
Hit Count: 4/5
Take your PC into a medieval world populated by lords and vassals who rule over the peasantry, where knights and mercenaries fight side by side – or against each other. Then grab the reins of your mount and unsheathe your blade and prepare to ride out to a land of adventure. It all sounds pretty epic, and actually pans out to be a really enjoyable free-form sandbox game. You can pretty much do anything in a whopping world thriving with hundreds of locations including, of course, jousting, sword-fighting and even buying a round of beer at the local tavern. Just the kind of escapist PC adventure that you can lose yourself in on a frosty autumn evening.
Title: Play TV
Platform: PS3
Genre: TV
Price: £69.99
Hit Count: 4/5
For those yet to join the growing digital TV revolution, where you can pause and record your favourite shows and watch them at your leisure, Play TV is, as you’d expect, fully HD-compatible. It boasts the kind of intuitive controls, single-button help features, tutorial videos and simple navigation that most people would cry out for on their standard digital TVs. Throw in the fact that you can use the PS3’s wi-fi capability to beam programmes onto your PSP, and you know this is one gadget you’ve got to get your hands on.
Title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Platform: Mac
Genre: War shooter
Price: £39.99
Hit Count: 4/5
Combat shooters don’t come much better than this. The review could end there, but salivate a little longer, if you will, at the prospect of pulling all that’s great about the WWII shooter series into the present day. Focusing on the antics of a terrorist group in the Middle East, you – as US Marine and SAS soldier - must take on all-comers in what is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous-looking, adrenalin-pumping shooters to grace this generation of computers. Intense is not the word, and even the early missions will have you on the edge of your seat, but somehow the game keeps on trumping itself. Especially in multi-player mode, which is a whole spanking-new world of class, upgrades and customisation that makes you realise why online is where gaming is really at.
Title: Spore
Platform: PC
Genre: Strategy
Price: £39.99
Hit count: 5/5
The Sims will only get you so far when simulating life, and it’s about time a game upped the ante. Spore does that and then some, taking you on an epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and eventually all the way into the deepest reaches of outer space. From life as a microbe just trying to survive, to launching your creature into the wide world populated by everyone else’s crazy creations, Spore is simply captivating. Fabulous graphics, an amazing array of creation tools to harness and a near-endless universe of other people’s take on ’life’ – Spore is a must for all wannabe-Darwins out there.
Title: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Strategy
Price: £39.99
Hit count: 4/5
Following on from the success of the original Viva Pinata, Trouble in Paradise takes you back to Pinata Island for another highly-addictive dose of papier-mache-inspired madness. A host of new pinatas and varied game modes ensure that anyone who mastered the orginal will find more than enough to get their teeth into this time around, while the Xbox Live online mode allows up to four players to team up and experience the joys of Pinata Island together. Contact other gamers to trade items as well as pinatas, or invite your friends to your garden to compete against them in races, golf and other events – the choice is yours. It’s definitely up there with the original and is well worth a look.
Title: Facebreaker
Platform: PS3
Genre: Boxing
Price: £39.99
Hit count: 2/5
When you hear that larger-than-life arcade boxer Facebreaker is coming from the stable that produced Fight Night Round 3, it’s a little like waiting to see who you’ll face in the ring when you hear they come from the same training camp as Mike Tyson. The reality is, it’s no-one near as tough. What Facebreaker gives in terms of irreverent humour and unique style, it takes from a gameplay perspective, ending up offering little more than an amusing visual boxing feast with little more meat on the bones. Seeing your real-time uploaded face gradually deform during a particularly severe pummelling will make you laugh out loud, but when round two, three and four start you won’t be feeling so spritely.
Title: Infinite Undiscovery
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: RPG
Price: £44.99
Hit count: 3/5
Another fantastical storyline to grip the Xbox 360’s RPG world, Infinite Undiscovery hides its own secrets a few hours into the gameplay, which gamers should stick at to uncover. The initial action and dungeon sequences are less than inspiring – so similar to what we’ve seen before – but after this disappointing opening the stakes are raised, providing an RPG adventure that offers the kind of dramatic situational battles we’re all crying out for, such as executing a daring escape while a gigantic ogre follows in hot pursuit or waging battle amid towering tidal waves. Real-time environments and battle action keep the adrenalin pumping, and you’ll soon be dreaming of a sequel, which one hopes won’t be too far away.
Title: Final Fantasy IV
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: RPG
Price: £29.99
Hit count: 5/5
Any Final Fantasy release is likely to set gamers’ pulses racing, and this one does a fantastic job of showcasing the capabilities of Nintendo’s DS, transferring a brilliant story of action, love and mystery to the small screens, bringing the 2D Super NES original into glorious 3D. There’s no doubt that it’s a tough RPG nut to crack, but it’s made all the more enjoyable with gorgeous cut-scenes and comparable sound that will delight handheld gamers. Yes, it is just a remake, but it’s just as enjoyable – if not more so – than the original. Hunt it down as soon as you can!
Title: Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
Platform: PS3
Genre: First Person Shooter
Price: £49.99
Hit count: 4/5
The Call of Duty series has been stomping a path for all other first person shooters to follow on next-generation, but something may have changed. As you’re dropped into Operation Market Garden, the largest paratrooper operation in World War II, could Brothers in Arms come out of the long grass and ambush us all with a refreshing take on this influential battle in hitory? Put simply, it’s fab. From sniffing out the enemy to setting up an ambush and directing your squad to execute it to perfection, this is an adrenalin-pumping shooter with real personality oozing from the central characters. Superb graphics, delightful destructible environments and the now obligatory brilliant online multiplayer means Hell’s Highway is a quick route to shooter heaven.
Title: Mary King’s Riding School
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Horses
Price: £29.99
Hit count: 3/5
Standards are impeccably high at Mary King’s Riding School and, for the most part, they appear to have been similar in this game developer’s stables. For another equestrian outing on Nintendo DS, customise your character’s look and style, then head to the paddock to pick your pony before embarking on a challenge to win international three-day events in six different countries. You get the chance to win trophies before spending the prize money on clothes, accessories and horses. In the stables there’s a tack room to adorn your horse in the finest bridlery, saddles and tail ribbons – if you’re that way inclined. If you’re into horses, you’ll love it. If not, why go near this?
Title: Space Siege
Platform: PC
Genre: Action RPG
Price: £34.99
Hit count: 3/5
Imagine the fear and claustrophobia you would feel on a spaceship under attack from aliens. With nowhere to run, you’ve just got to stand your ground and defend every nook and cranny of that ship for all it’s worth. Now take any semblance of excitement building up inside you and bin it, as Space Siege contrives to offer exactly this set-up but with almost none of the enjoyment you’d anticipate. It’s action RPG by numbers, with repetitive clicking on enemies all you need to do to defeat them. Most shreds of character customisation are reduced to the most basic levels, appealing to a wide audience but likely to impress very few. They say that in space no-one can hear you scream. That’s not the case before your PC though.
Title: International Athletics
Platform: PSP
Genre: Athletics
Price: £29.99
Hit count: 2/5
What must surely be the final Olympic-themed release of the summer is bound to pick up a fair bit of interest with it being a) on a portable console and b) being released just as Team GB seem to be picking up the gold medals at an alarming, yet impressive, rate. As with previous releases, you must button-bash your way to gold medals and world records but, with only 14 events and a pass-the-PSP-round-your-friends multiplayer mode, you might feel a little short-changed with this effort. Setting world records is remarkably easy, bringing the credibility and longevity of the title into question. Here’s a new event to take part in – see how far away from this game you can stay. It shouldn’t be too tricky.
Title: Carnival Games
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Arcade
Price: £19.99
Hit count: 2/5
This mini-game compilation was a bit of a hit on the Wii last year, so why not bottle that fun up and shrink it down to cartridge size for the DS? Nice, in theory, but sadly the execution doesn’t quite live up to the hype. Carnival Games on DS proves to be bright and flashy visually but ultimately unsatisfying once you take a trip around the park. Easy games will be quickly unlocked by seasoned gamers, while youngsters will grow frustrated by some games’ insistence on lacking any kind of skill at all, becoming games of chance and nothing more (see Balloon Darts). Twenty quid will probably give you a good summer evening’s fun out at the real fun fair, and that’s exactly what you should do, rather than stay inside and play this.
GAMES CHART:
1.Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
2.Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
3.Spore
4.Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
5.Wii Fit
6.Mario Kart Wii
7.Carnival: Funfair Games
8.Guitar Hero: On Tour
9.TNA Impact
10.Wii Play
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (c) ELSPA (UK) Ltd
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