Sharing is Caring.

Since I started using Twitter my time spent on Facebook naturally decreased but recently I’ve all but stopped using Zuckerberg’s networking behemoth entirely. It got me thinking about why I’d stopped using it and the more I thought about it the more obvious the answers were. I don’t think it’s one specific reason but a collection of several…

There’s the the new Timeline feature which is a bit of a pain but I don’t think that’s the reason. When I first got it imposed on me I didn’t know what to do with it, but in time I figured it out and I don’t actually mind it that much. However the timeline does ruin the pages (or likes) feature as I’ve seen working in small businesses trying to build up their social network presence. It is abysmal for them and I’m still surprised it hasn’t been modified yet…

I think what annoys me the most about Facebook from an individual standpoint is the endless obsession with sharing everything. I mean, don’t get me wrong, sharing is great and all but I am getting a little fed up with being encouraged to do so all the time by Facebook. Tell us where you are! Update your status! Tell the world what you bought off Amazon! It’s all a bit bizarre…

Bird Watching.

Wimbledon has been and gone this year and I’m missing it already. Every time it comes around I get more than a little addicted to it and pretty much watch every available match when I can.

I do like tennis and would watch it a lot more if it was on terrestrial tele more. Maybe that’s why I get so excited when Wimbledon’s on because I’ve been starved of tennis for a whole year thanks to Sky having bought all the other tournaments like greedy little kids who come to birthday party buffets with Tupperware boxes.

Anyone for Tennis? - Mario Tennis Open Review.

Mario has certainly been in his fair share of sports game throughout his illustrious career. He’s had a stab at football, golf, tennis, volleyball, and hockey to name a few; he’s even an Olympian these days! Of all Mario’s sporting efforts though, the Mario Tennis franchise has been one of the most popular over the years and now 3DS owners will have the chance to take to the court with Mario Tennis Open.

It all began twelve years ago when Camelot released Mario Tennis on the N64, one of the best games on the console and my personal favourite tennis sim of all time! Okay, so Mario Tennis isn’t the most realistic tennis sim out there but I find it to be the most enjoyable! It’s essentially a simplified version of the sport with tonnes of action, loads of vibrancy, and the Mario Brothers instead of the Williams sisters. However saying that realism is definitely needed in some degree or the game simply doesn’t work. Just look at the below-bar Gamecube effort Mario Power Tennis where ‘power moves’ were added allowing the player to make an unreturnable shot once they'd built up enough power. The only way to return one of these shots was to have a power shot at your disposal too; you can probably see why this stopped the game from being a success.

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.