FIFA: The Outrage

Before I begin my rant, I want to tell you something. Me and my friend have been playing FIFA at least once a week for a couple of hours for years. So I would consider us to be fairly decent at the game. We play various game modes, against other players online. We very rarely play against each other, though. So we know how each other play and this works to our advantage when playing online.

However... With the new generation of FIFA, things are different. With FIFA 13, we would play, let's say 15 games in an evening, and win roughly 13 of them. On FIFA 14, nope. We'll play roughly 15 and win about 8. Now, I'm not saying the game is too hard. We've found that when a guest is added, it just becomes a lot more difficult. My friend decided to have a game by himself and won comfortably. I joined him for the next game and we struggled so much. This happens time and time again. We know we play well together, because of having played for so many years.

I fully understand that when two people are playing online against one, there are certain advantages. Like you can make your own runs, or cover for your friend. So it's understandable that AI assistance is decreased. The annoying thing, however, is that it's too much in certain areas of the game. The run assistance is fine. But defending is something completely different. When we play a game, the opponent's AI makes a fair amount of interceptions. Does our AI do that? Not really, no. The ball seems to roll passed them without the player sticking a leg out. I know, it's just a game. But it really is infuriating when the opposition receives a "helping hand" as it were.

This doesn't just happen to me and said friend. He and his girlfriend also have the same difficulties that we experience. I just can't get my head around how much more challenging it can be to play, compared to the previous FIFA. I want to like FIFA 14, I really do. It's good fun having a tournament between a few friends, but it will definitely take more time to get used to and enjoy multiplayer online play.

Eurogamer Visit

It's a bit late, but I didn't really think about blogging about it until now. Anyway, I went to Eurogamer in London on the 26th of September with my brother and a friend. I missed out on it last year as my brother and I visited my dad in Sierra Leone. So I was fairly excited to see what it was all like.

The ticket prices for the event themselves were a reasonable price; £15. Not bad for one of Europe's biggest gaming conventions. Transport was another issue... the train tickets were going to cost in the region of £45 each. No thank you. We decided to drive and book a place at the event's car park, which was steep itself at £25. But that and petrol split between three people worked out to be fairly cheap.

Now, before I talk about the event itself, I want to saw a quick word about driving in London. Don't f*cking do it. It really is horrendous; one way systems everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of cars and bikes and not to mention bloody buses. Ya know, normally, when you want to squeeze into a lane, you indicate then wait for the car behind to flash you in? Well, not in London. They indicate and move in one motion; we nearly had three bumps because of that. I must say, it was rather scary, being my first time driving in London.

But anyway, Eurogamer itself. The queue to get in was rather long, but moved at a constant and steady pace which was nice. So it didn't take us long to get in at all. I suppose what helps is that when you get to the front, you are given a wristband to put on yourself, rather than the people behind the counter putting them on for you. When inside the main hall, the size of the place is overwhelming. It's massive (that's what she said). And monumentally busy. Tonnes and tonnes of people walking round, queuing to get their hands on the new and upcoming video games.

I didn't know where to start. I definitely wanted to see Watch Dogs. I saw the trailer a couple weeks (or was it months? I can't remember) beforehand and it looks amazing.

There are a couple of first gameplay trailers on YouTube as well. At Eurogamer, we couldn't actually play the game as it's far from complete. However, you can watch a member of the Ubisoft team play through one of the missions in real time. It was definitely worth queuing up for an hour and a half to see. I even downloaded this pretty cool app for my phone that "encrypts" and "decrypts" messages you can send to others.

Watching the Watch Dogs gameplay was pretty much the only thing I did. The queues were that long and there were that many people there that I really couldn't be bothered to queue up for one or two hours to play 15 minutes of a new and upcoming game. Battlefield 4 was there, but I couldn't see the point in queuing up for that because the beta came out 5 days later. My brother tested and bought a mechanical keyboard; pretty much the only other thing he did. But my friend queued up for Elder Scrolls Online, which he was very pleased with.

One awesome thing about Eurogamer was that I met Tom Cassell. (I think that's how you spell his last name). He is a famous YouTuber under the name TheSyndicateProject. He literally had dozens of fans crowded round him, wanting him to sign anything and everything. I waited for ages to get my magazine signed.

I overheard that he hadn't eaten all day so bought him a pizza and a coke. My brother took a nice video of me handing it to him and this picture.

It was a pleasure to meet him as his videos are very good and funny. After that, it was time to call it a day and drive home; joy! More London driving. I don't think I'll go to Eurogamer next year - I mean, it was a good experience, but there was just far too much queuing for my liking. But at least I can tick it off my list that I've been to Eurogamer. I would recommend going, if you don't mind queuing for a while. There are plenty of other things to do as well, like buy merchandise and talk to people in the careers fair. It is just incredibly busy.

Sorry for such a long post, til next time! Bye.

Oh, and when I was writing this, I had a fluffy distraction.

Plonkers in Westminster

Have you heard the news that the driving age could be increased to 18? And that new drivers under the age of 30 will have a night-time curfew for 12 months, where they cannot drive their vehicle between the hours of 22.00 and 05.00? However, if they are carrying a passenger over the age of 30, they can drive at night. These newly qualified drivers would also be banned from carrying anyone below the age of 30 until the 12 month learner stage is completed.

This is ridiculous. It doesn't even apply to me because I have a full driving license already. I feel so sorry for those new drivers, if this law comes into play. It suggests that you can receive a provisional driving license at the age of 17, but won't be able to take your test until you are 18. Said people will have to complete, as before mentioned, a learner stage in which they have to clock up at least 100 hours of daytime driving and 20 hours of supervised night-time driving.

Parking

I've come here to vent my anger and frustration that I get from parking in my uni car park. It gets tremendously busy, very quickly and people park like dicks; politely put. Come 10:00 am, there are literally no spots to park in, so I do one last check around the car park and proceed to the exit to find another location to park in a little further away from uni. I don't mind a walk from time to time.

HIV/AIDS

A few days ago there was a wonderful news report that a young girl in the US was cured of HIV. I was absolutely thrilled and read the article straight away; the article is here: US HIV baby cured. You see, I knew someone who was HIV positive, but he died; not of HIV itself, as that is not the killer, but of AIDS. It was upsetting, because the man was one of our ground guards when me and the family lived in Kenya.

You're Grammar Are Wrong

Yes, intentional title.

Is it just me, or do a hell of a lot of people not know how to use grammar correctly? I bring this up because I know (and know of) people who just can't get their grammar right at all. For example, the brought/bought saga. Earlier in the week on Twitter, I saw a professional footballer tweet "I just brought Wesley Sneijder for £48 million...." (and so on) and thought to myself...how hard can it actually be to use brought and bought correctly!? Do you get irritated by it too?

The same can be said for learn/teach and borrow/lend. I don't want to go on a full-on rant, but thought I'd stress my irritation about incorrect grammar.

12 Years of Age...

I read a news article earlier from Fox News (here). It rather upset me.

I mean, this kid is 12 years old! 12!? What did his 2 year old brother to so badly that warranted this 12 year old to bash him into a bookshelf twice? He's 2 for goodness sake! It makes me think what goes on in people's minds who have the capability to do this sort of thing to another human being, especially one of such a young age.

Is it fair that the 12 year old murderer received an adult court hearing and an adult sentence? Yes, I believe it is fair. If someone, no matter what their age, performs such an act of violence to another, they should receive the same justice as one another. OK, so people are saying that it's not his fault, it's the mother's. But he was the one of smashed his little brother into the bookshelf, not the mother. The mother has to take some responsibility, I agree. Therefore I agree with the manslaughter charge she has been given; as she really shouldn't have left her 12 year old and 2 year old sons at home alone...but that's my opinion.

What was upsetting the most, for me, was that the mother (when she eventually got home after her son called her) decided to result to Google to find out what happens when a child is unconscious for a few hours. Or what happens in child concussions. I mean, seriously!? My first instinct would be to take him straight to the hospital to seek medical attention. But no, the mother then also decides (or it could have been the 12 year old) to download music, look up popular screen savers and YouTube videos, then finally looks up the hospital. What, were they just waiting for the 2 year old boy to wake up without any sort of treatment from a head injury? It's just ridiculous. It frustrates me how little love and care she seems to possess for her own son. She deserves her sentence, and to be honest, I want her to get 30 years in prison. And her 12 year old son deserves life in prison.

But no, he'll most likely serve his sentence until he's 18, be released and given a new identity and he gets to have a new life. Isn't that how it goes?