Juju

And we'll still have Alex Mcleish.....

As above - Seem to not be as many about as modern combat - prefer the feel of WWII (Or indeed WWI). Seems My choices seem to be Call of Duty Series, (I, II and United offensive in a "Steam Warchest Combo), Call of Duty World at War Iron Front - (Supposed to be buggy) Red Orchestra I&II Bundle (II supposed to be buggy too). Anything I've missed - whats the best? The last time I played one of these was Medal ofHonour on a PS1! - And don't worry bout the specs, my pc should run just about anything ok..... Suggestions please.... Alternatively, if the modern ones are *much* better, what would I go for?

I picked up LA Noire for a fiver on Steam. - A midweek madness 75% off. I have to say, as a veritable newcomer to modern pc gaming, Steam seems utterly spendid. I'd never have bought LA Noire full price when first released at £40. Even £20 would have seemed a lot for a sort of "limited stories adventure", a genre I only have limited interest in - but at a fiver, it's not even worth pirating -just buy it. So the supply and demand curve met for me there. They got a sale of a game thats been out a while that they'd never have had, with the dynamic pricing they can do. Another example is they did a mad 90% off Train Sim 2012 last december. it was a barking £2.99 or something. Ok, so I bought that, and fair enough, its not worth pirating at thatprice. But I am about tobuy a £25 dowload content from the makers for it - another example that Steam pricing will sell product, and it's really debatable if anyone loses out. Low price games kill piracy, and low price games can induce further DLC purchasing when the gamer can be "sure" of the quality of the content.

So let me get this right? Your actually saving hard to go to America. You live on the Isle of Wight or somewhere grim where jobs in a recession are tough to come by. You didn't say if this is your only job, this 3 hours a week you barely manage to squeeze in to your social calendar, (and your 10088 VT posts) and then when they ring you up, offering you more work, (presumably more money for America- which appears important to you) and make extensive efforts to ensure you are offered it, you attitude is "how dare you try hard and make extensive efforts to offer me more hours/money, I want to go to a music festival.... " To be honest, if A) is true and you don't have a proper alternative occupation with a proper wage, then your attitude stinks. if It's an side job, then why not let it go to someone who really needs it and would actually value it? You clearly don't, and if they read this post, what would they make of your frankly childish attitude? Thirdly - So what are you taking legal action for? because they haven't just handed you a gold bar or something? Because I'm confused now... you want money, they offer it, and you go off on one. If they'd rung your phone the once, got no reply and you rang back 15 mins later and they'd offered it to someone else, you'd be moaning that they'd not tried hard enough to get hold of you.... I love the idea you were "so busy" you couldn't find 30 seconds to speak to them.... are you actually Sir Alan Sugar or something? Essentially the basis of the legal action you outline is that you have suffered a loss through their actions, which requires some sort of compensation. The loss might be a moments inconvenience to your girlfriend in answering the phone and any cost to her of doing so. I think you probably worked out by now thats worth roughly £0. You seem to have lost sight that them making successful contact with you was in YOUR interest, to pay YOU MORE MONEY, which is why you work there. This is one of the poorest rants I have ever seen here. Max mark I can award is 3/10. Could have done with more expletives and block capitals. Lost a mark for not naming and shaming the company involved. Although you did get 2 marks simply for the utter pointlessness of it all. I expect a better, more bellicose and incoherent tirade of abuse for your next effort. I feel you have at least a 6/10 in you somewhere.

I think the Rev would make a rather fine President of the USA, and am more upset he's ruled himself out........ As for Southgate... meh.. but, I see Simon Grayson has just continued the good work at Huddersfield Town.. He's young, ambitious, cheap...

I was at White Hart Lane ooh, 3 years ago, when we tore them apart all night, Ashley Young was brilliant, and at times we looked like Brazil. The scoreline flattered them, we won handsomely. Since then, we allowed the board to fall out with the man that had assembled that side and attracted those players and then sold those very good players. Spurs didn't. And that is why they are above us now.

There is some measure of the truth in the above. Lerner deserves his "investment" to be relegated on the basis of his management strategy of selling all the best players and falling out with an otherwise broadly competant manager and replacing him with one with a track record of being unsuccessful at the top flight. His shambolic appointments to the board for a business direction in Faulkner. If it was a business of selling credit cards, he'd deserve his business to fold for his incompetence. I suspect he is learning you can't just take the cash and slam the brakes on spending without harming the "investment". The fact that he hides from the media/fans and criticism in his cowardly fashion, remaining totally unanswerable for his decisions is also repellant to me these days. I begin to see how we were all so misled over his previous behaviour. Lerner symbolises all wrong at Villa - there is no leadership in the boardroom, there is no leadership on the pitch, there is no leadership behind the scenes. The idea of a 5 year strategy appeared to get binned about year 3.5, and has been replaced by, well, what exactly? Panic? That we went from 6th place, to below the likes of West Brom, Swansea, Norwich, is a direct reflection of the management of the club and the decisions made. And Lerner will find out that to undo the damage of the last couple of seasons of his incompetence, will take years to fix. The debacle of the Browns and it's revisiting with the Villa, suggests Lerner isn't fit to manage a sporting club. Frankly, I'd not trust him with my train set.

No votes for Djemba Djemba yet? Manchester United's new Roy Keane? I think his was the most humiliating, in terms of people taking the pi$$ at the office. Followed by the mighty Heskey, and Harewood.

Romanes Eunt Domis !

To be honest, that list of store closures is credible evidence of a confused management strategy. Croydon, for example, had apparently 3 stores, and one ex gamestation already closed. The 2 Croydon stores were effectively competing against each other, one on the outside, and one on the insude, of the same central high st shopping area. Crawley too, had 2 competing stores less than 50 yards apart. Even Redhill (where?) had two till very recently, which is a small High St full of empty retail, units albeit only 10m from Gatwick. Frankly, half their shops should have gone 3 years ago or more. Whats also noticible, is that when I was more regularly buying PC games, a few years ago, my Game had a decent selection of stuff, including more "adult" titles (Not smutty, but "dads software", like third party extensions for MS Flight Sim, Il2 Sturmovic Series, and the train Sims. They had a range of more pricy joysticks and stuff for those. Decent books and guides on that "niche" area. The last couple of years have seen them turn Game into a console games for kids store, and I cannot actually buy from Game, what I want to buy. Thats a failing, not having product that casual passers by with disposible income might get on impulse, but trying to compete on the big sellers like Amazon and Tesco's, without the price advantage of operating out of one industrial retail unit in a tax haven. The last titles I have wanted to buy, Cliffs of Dover and Rise of Flight, have not been stocked by Game, or at least, I have not seen them on the shelves for a casual purchase. The last I did buy, Railworks Train Sim 3, again, not for sale in store? Why? But given the lack of any other game stores in the High St, it's still a shame to see the doors of so many Game stores close.......

And your posting this on villatalk, where, er, you knew virtually no one before you registered?

Apparently not. What has happened, is that the original cats were being stolen for the metals, but by semi-sophisticated people who could organise return to places where cats can be stripped. Now, because new cats are so expensive, and supply being short - theres often waiting lists, particularly for commercial vehicles, and cats are now being stolen, simply to sell on, for far more mon ey than the original spate of cat thefts ever got for the recycling!

Because we're all learning that the polis are no f**king help at all. Example 1 - My motorbike got reversed into parked, fairing damaged, indicator broken, various scuffs. It was actually knocked over, and the driver picked it up, before driving off. Parked right under a cctv. Witness saw it, but didn't get reg but exact time and description. I reported it. I was simply given a "producer". I asked a fortnight later what the pp was, and "they'd do an investigation". They refused to let me view the council cctv, despite the counsel saying I could, from the police station. I never heard back. Result - £300+ down as plod can't be bothered to watch 5 mins of cctv. Example 2 - My car got stolen. Plod say that someone took it and scrapped it. The scrapper says he got a phone call from someone who's name he can't remember, from a number he didn't keep, and who never gave an address, saying they could have the car. As a result, plod say firstly, they won't investigate as the value of the car is too low! Secondly, they say that they won't even release the scrappers details to me, as "he isn't the suspect". When I asked who was, they say the "mystery caller", and cite DPA as the reason for refusing to pass on the details. Given the police are so totally useless, to the point of actually being "obstructive" to rightful justice, I say the oinly way we can get any, is to take it into our own hands, until the police realise the culture they are creating and decide to do something about it.

No, from his username, I think it's in Welsh.

Thats fine, until there is no more offline. And when that happens, what do you think willhappen with prices. Humans are fantastic at "short termism". Now, I appreciate, perhaps as a yoof, and hardcore gamer, you might have a "certain"perspective - you are both familiar with on line, are actually "on line", and perhaps have less disposable. But if you look at the typical Game store on a saturday, it's not just people like you. The next time you have a birthday, and your favourite uncle gives you a crappy present, its because he may have forgotten til the last minute, and when he went to buy you something, there was no where to buy it. Same with any parents who are buying the kid their first console, or young kids who "can't" shop on line. Anyone canwalk into game with a tenner and get something, even s/hand, but who under 16/18 can buy online without a paypal/bank account? Do you think your high St is poorer without a games shop? Or without all the music shops that went bust? Or that some of the 2.8m unemployed are ex woolies/zavvi/game staff? What frigtens me, is this appears the future of physical retail, and soon High st's will be dead urban spaces, simply as the likes of AMazon, Play simply occupy the far corner of some industrial unit hundreds of miles away. When you spend your £, you make the choice. Me, I no longer shop online unless it's totally neccessary, simply as I know what retail future I want.

Why does paying say, RRP, on a product from a company which provides you with the additional services of being local, convenient, immediate in delivery of product, and with other benefits such as the ability to browse, equate to being "ripped off?". That Amazon don't have to pay for 600+ shops, business rates and for staff there to meet your immediate needs, means they can ultimately deliver product more cheaply. Tesco's will cream off the big sellers, but won't ever stock those low volume or niche products. In both senses, they can afford to sell more cheaply, because, and the point I made was, they don't offer a competitive service, only a price competitive service. Oh, and who's paying Chindie's benefits? We are, through increased taxation, as Amazon, registered in Luxembourg won't be. The problem is seeing that anyhting other than "cheapest" means "ripped off". Well, here's news buddy, your 1kg bag of oven chips are cheaper than a small bag down the chippy. Is the chippy "ripping you off?" When you buy a bike from CRC or Wiggle, they can't service the thing in 3m time, or will be able to do you an instant repair, so you go to the local bike shop. His prices are largely rrp as well, but he also has staff, business rates and a shop to maintain. He isn't "ripping you off", by charging more for the product than can be got elsewhere, its just the "mix" of benefits he can provide are less obvious, and price is less important in his "mix". Its the same with bike retailing, book selling, computer games and many FMCG's (fast moving consumer goods), that online are taking a big slice of the action by "price sensitive" consumers, who can't see that their shopping habits are ultimately harmful to the character of High St's and of retailing generally.

I wonder if all those people who liked to browse at the bigger and second hand selection at Game, and trade in their duff games, before buying discounted at Tesco's or Amazon online, can make the intellectual link between receiving no customer service and no shop to browse through, and the cheaper prices they paid. The cost of any product, at any shop, is only reflective of the service and overheads. When our high streets are empty of everything excpet charity shops and estate agents, and we have no where to go for that last minute spur of the minute present, perhaps then, people will realise they should have supported their local retailer, as thats what they have lost. The games market is worth billions, theres no way that a well run shop/chain/brand like game should shut down. It does seem that it's the shareprice rather than anything else thats done it, on the basis of bad news from suppliers. Well, here's the news. All those people who can't now buy at a store, now have to get product online instead. And if you are going online, why wait for the postman, when you can download the product. And if you can download it, why pay for it when its free? I don't think the human mind can get round the idea of owning something they don't physically posess. Suppliers who refused to supply Game on reasonable terms will not shift more product, their actions were short sighted and self defeating. Whils't I have no particular love for Game, I think the high St is the poorer without them, simply as there are so few credible alternatives.

Well Bernie, you greedy little old man.... No one's talking about it. No one saw it. Your greed in trying to "sell" your tedious processional "event" in a market with few bidders, (ie British Television) mean there was very little interest in an old, established market, ie the UK, where your teams are based. Are your sponsors happy no one saw it? I hope not, and perhaps you can rethink your continual milking of cash cow. Or perhaps you'll just put more effort into grubbing up to the filthy rich oil nations with little historical interest and no real established pedigree, and take their cash for a few years til for Europe, F1 is totally dead. Well done.

Boo - Masterchef's a fix. How can a bloody curry in a pot win? She just keeps churning out curry, week after week. Nothing "that" inspired, even if it was good. But she's "commercial" in a way the others arn't. Tom had the idea that Torrode always favours fusion food as thats what he excells in, and so that langoustine cosomme wasn't a bad idea. I reckon if Tom hadn't done the strawberries, he's have got in there. I think either of the other two ought to have taken first place. Acorn pannacota? What a fantastic idea. Better than ooh, Shelina, something else with mango's again... Anyone else agree? Bah...

You clearly never spoken to a bluenose. They were all sick of his totally negative tactics. 1-0 up at half time? - sub a striker for a defender and shut up shop. Playing a team above you? Sent out the team to stick 11 behind the ball and hope for a draw. The man has no balls, no judghement, one plan, which frequently fails. Its just the same plan he used at sha. And yes, I wish we could go back a few years to finishing 6th. Or wasn't that what you meant? Or were Milner, Young, Downing and indeed the core of the future England team, shit signings?

I just saw Davy Jones face. Now I'm a bereaver.

A friend of mines mad loser brother got married last year to a Russian girl he "found" on the web. She flew over, they got married. Now, despite him being likely to iherit the small and non profitable family farm, he is isn his late 40's and still lives with his mother. He has no real social skills, few friends, and he moved to the middle of Devon to get a bit more land for his hobby farming, despite not having been able to hold down a proper job in the last 25 years or so. After the marriage, he didn't even have the money to pay for the application to have her visa upgraded. As a result, she said she would fly back to Russia to earn the £800 or so needed. She has barely been in contact since, and every time he rings her "brother" seems to answer, and she is never in. We all figure she worked out that he has no actual money, and has left him. He still maintains this fiction that she loves him, not that he was picked out cynically from the internet as being a soft touch lonely useless with women but farm owning man, and that she found out too late he has nothing to his name. Just saying, thats all...

It really doesn't need 3 people to make a sodding sandwich, really. I mange perfectly well in my kitchen on my own.

I consider myself as a paragon of virtue, but as far as I see it, the pub are totally entitled to charge you what they like, within the remit that you have agreed to spend not less than £x pounds with them. If they took one look at you and decided you ought to benefit from a special deal, then thats fine. Its not stealing. It's not even profiting by a mistake, in the way a supermarket makes an error on a bar code and suddenly people are queueing up for a box of soap powder at 25p or whatever. However, I would take the point that it's probably worth a return visit and a very decent tip next time.... It happened to me in an Edinburgh pizzaria, where I ordered a veggie pizza, my dining companion ordered the same, but wanted no cheese as she was a vegan. So thats two vegetarians, but ones a vegan, ect. Anyway we then ordered the wine, and it didn't get added to the bill. By the time we left the restaurant the staff were confused, it was 1:00am, and we were the worse for wear and heading straight back to hers, and to be honest, I didn't even check the bill, having figured it would set me back at least £30 and pleased it didn't. If I ever make it back there, I'll be pleased to leave a decent tip.

So, Fabio Capello resigns. Three weeks ago, the idea of an Italian leaving a sinking ship was unimaginable.....