Moving the line with the goalposts.

Unsurprisingly the goal-line technology debate has opened up again during Euro 2012 and what a surprise, it involves England!

This time however England actually benefitted from the incorrect refereeing decision during their group match against Ukraine. With England 1-0 up Ukraine were giving everything they had to grab themselves an equalising lifeline to stay in the tournament they’re co-hosting. In the 62^nd minute they thought they’d got it when Marko Devic’s shot looped in to the goal but was scooped out by John Terry on the line.

When it first happened on live TV I thought it was definitely over the line but then I started doubting myself as there is a man with a Wii remote stood a few feet away to make a decision. Surely he’d get it right, it’s his only actual job for the evening but no, it turns out a quick video replay proved he was indeed wrong not to give Ukraine a goal as the ball had clearly crossed the line.

Bad Boycotting Behaviour.

This afternoon I was procrastinating on Twitter when I saw that someone had retweeted a tweet from The Sun about how overweight people could consume the Earth’s supply of food rendering us all to wallow in what they dubbed an ‘armaglutton’.

Pretty standard stuff from The Sun and the word armaglutton is pretty funny so why not retweet it, you’re well within your rights as a free citizen to do so.

This person did just that and was quickly told off by someone for retweeting the ‘vile’ newspaper that is The Sun asking them in no uncertain terms what was wrong with them. You may have already guessed but this person was indeed a Liverpool fan…

Take. My. Money. - Nintendo E3 Conference 2012.

So with the other two big hitters having done their conferences, it was left to Nintendo to close up with theirs and they did it a little differently this year. Instead of having one big conference they used other means to tell us all what they’re doing over the next year. First of all before the conference itself they did a Nintendo Direct to reveal a few things with the gamepad being the main news, then they had the conference itself where they focussed entirely on the Wii U and its games, and then they finished off with a 3DS showcase, showing off several upcoming 3DS games.

Compared to their big rivals, Nintendo’s conference was much more modest and humble. Whereas Sony had a ridiculous arena full of people, Nintendo used a much smaller venue to set the stage for the Wii U. This played out pretty well for Nintendo as it felt a lot more homely and it allowed Reggie Fils-Aime to do what he does best.

There's life in the old PS3 yet - Sony E3 Conference 2012.

After Microsoft had had their say Sony were able to respond quickly having their conference only a few hours later. Was it any better? Well yes, miles better.

Sony’s conference was a far cry from last year’s effort where they spent forever talking about how 3D was going to revolutionise the way we play games. This year there was no mention of 3D and there was an actual focus on games.

Whereas Microsoft kicked off with their ace of spades Sony trickled them out bit by bit and had a much more balanced conference to show for it. After the typical long-winded montage opener we’ve all come to expect from Sony, Jack Tretton emerged onto the stage to give his spiel about how Sony loves the fans and how great they both are together. Seriously, he was either trying to get laid or attempting to farm more money from them, probably the latter in fairness.

Everything is better with Kinect, right? - Microsoft E3 Conference 2012.

Microsoft were the first major company to take centre stage at E3 this year and many were looking forward to what they were going to show. Rumours were flying here, there and everywhere of a new console, the fabled 720, but rather disappointingly this was not to be.

Instead it started pretty much from where they left off at last year’s E3 with Mr Green Helmet Man and his everlasting adventures in space. Yes, it’s Halo 4 and to be fair it looked pretty good! We were treated to an over-the-top trailer that Halo’s getting a reputation for and then a small playthrough of an early level which featured a lot of cinematics and a new feature that sees Chief using his visor to scan objects in a way that has echoes of the Metroid Prime series.

The Highs and Lows of E3 2012.

Last week the games industry came together once again for the annual E3 conference in Los Angeles. It’s the time of year when all gamers get excited and glue themselves to live streams of conference after conference hoping to get a good look at some of the games developers have to offer.

Overall it was a decent expo; some developers did well, others less so. There were plenty of highlights to be found and of course inevitable lowlights… All in all there was something for everyone.

If you like shooters for example you should probably check out EA’s conference as that’s pretty much all they’re bringing out in the coming year with Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Battlefield 3 DLC (no idea why this was shown), Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3 all being shown off. For those who don’t like shooters there’s always SPORTS! Sigh.

Lovilee Jubilee.

This weekend saw Great Britain celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee; 60 years passively ruling over her loyal subjects. The celebrations featured a Jubilee Pageant down the river Thames, a concert organised by (the no doubt soon to be honoured) Gary Barlow, and several other events including a Jubilee thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral.

The Jubilee concert was probably the highlight for most people, seeing as the pageant was like watching an episode of The One Show – a wet one at that. The concert featured such big names as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tom Jones, Jessie J, Alfie Boe, Madness and… Cheryl Cole.