JBird

Just got hit with a pre-quick look advert for Cod Ghosts on XboxOne and at the end it said "coming this holiday". Now in the UK it's generally considered to be the summer holidays from end of May to beginning of September. So I heard that and thought....it's coming out this summer! What does "this holiday" mean to an American?

@starfoxa: Now this is awkward cos my uncle's mate Gary knows this dude who cleans the Rockstar North office and he says that the office is preparing for a arcade cabinet release.

It's strange, every since Ryan spoke about the Playstation brand having a massive loyalty in Europe we've had the full page Metro adverts and the champions league final banner ads. I've not noticed it before.

And that picture does look fake, but aggressive fake marketing or not....it's pretty good!

Dude I guess if you're in-between jobs, you're in-between jobs. There is no shame in being unemployed as long as you are looking for jobs! Can you leave it blank? You could always put "Competition Winner" but that will make you look a bit weird. If you are wanting to continue the line of work you were in previously I'd put the old job title. The purpose of the "job title/employer" is so people can identify quickly what you do, so in that regard it makes sense to put your previous title.

If I was for Xbox I think I'd pretty much copy the PS4 announcement. But you have to embrace the corporate jank, it's what makes these things awesome in their own special way! It'd be all green, some dude walks out to centre stage, spotlight on them,

" On May 21st we announced the XboxOne. (pause)... The whole world tuned in on (name sponsored streaming and tv channels) to see what the future was like. And we told them, we told them what made the XboxOne unique, how it would change the way we watch tv, how it would bring together everything we need into one box. We showed the world why the XboxOne is going to be the greatest change to the living room since Tv itself.

Now, 19 days later. I'm stood here before the people that made the Xbox brand what it is, and today...today you will see how the XboxOne will continue the legacy we have begun of creating the greatest games console imaginable."

(fades to black) - huge montage about games, featuring snippits of the 15 exclusives and loads of awesome stuff. ...rest of conference is about games.

Well that's what I'd do anyway!

It's one of those things that is either not an issue at all, or fully sucks. When you think about it It is really rare that the internet goes down for more than about 15mins, but if one is in the sort of situation that the internet is down for 24 hours....it's not coming back up quickly. The only time in my house that I've ever gone for that long is when the router broke, when we changed providers and when we first moved here. Each time was about a week or two of no internet. If you don't have internet for that long you are more likely going to want to play some video games and not having that option despite buying and owning the games is infuriating.

Edit: We might have to actually read a book or somthing. SHIT!

A guy on youtube started doing a "lets play" of Zelda: Links Awakening. This was a game I had as a child and lost. I hadn't thought about it for 15/16 years and suddenly It jumped back into my life! Watching the play-through is really really enjoyable because a) it is now in colour! b) It is bringing back memories, and interestingly c), I've found myself remembering my perceptions of the game as a 7 year old!

I never finished Zelda: Links Awakening, I have memories of having no clue what to do next and searching the whole map trying to find what to do! Based on these new videos I don't think I ever got past the second dungeon! There were a number of golden feathers that I had to collect and I cannot recall ever grasping that was what was needed! But either way I loved that game.

Thinking about other childhood games has brought up some other errors I made as a child that seem so dumb now. I had the game "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins". I completed this one and felt like a boss...but I also remember the first time I turned it on. I got it for Christmas, started level 1, got the first 6 coins in the game and ran to my mum to tell her I'd already won the game! The rest of the game was just bonus, I had 6 golden coins...In fact I got way more. I was the mario king! It wasn't for a few months untill I got good enough to actually beat a boss and get an official "golden coin" that I realised the game may have more to it!

So anyone else got any stories from playing a game as a child and perceiving the game differently?

@funkydupe: It's one way for sure, but I wouldn't call it a fun way. I would use flash bangs and grenades and It was a really satisfying kill because I had to think tactically to get it! @mightyduck: I was thinking the same thoughts after posting my blog. I'm really ready for a new thing to sweep me up in its awesomeness. I wonder if this Destiny thing will fill the void?!.

@scaramoosh: I completely agree about whining online, it helps nothing and it's annoying! But as beneficial your foresight has been for you I don't think its fair to say that the consumer should know better.

If EA say a game is coming out on a certain day it should be playable on a certain day. Nobody is forcing them to release on that day and they should ensure that the product they are selling will work. In my mind the whole issue would be sorted if EA had marketed the launch as "SimCity Launch week", they can explain that with a potential huge influx of players they wanted to make people aware it may take a week or so for the game to work perfectly. But they didn't, they marketed it for launch on a certain day and it was broken.

For every 1 of us on giantbomb who could foresee the launch problems there will be some poor guy sat at home who doesn't know about video games but wants to build a city and doesn't know why he cant. It's not enough to assume that consumer will wait a bit so servers sort themselves out.

Exact same problem