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It’s All Over

The Olympics that is. The last event, the men’s marathon was spoiled by some nutter running onto the track and pushing the leader into a barrier. I’m sure it’s the same idiot that ran onto a grand prix track last year (Silverstone?). Don’t think it affected the outcome as the guy was tiring but to think you’ve spent four years training for someone to do that. Fool.

Highlights have to be Kelly Holmes, Matthew Pincent and Amir Kahn. The 1500m was superb and to top the night off the shock of the men 4x100m – I thought the Americans had snatched it but 1/100th of a second is all that matters. Pity about the boxing but the kid (17!!) did really well to get to the final. These have been great games with something to watch almost every day – previous Olympics have always got off to a slow start or had dull days but not this time. Roll on Beijing.

Olympic Contrast

holmesWatching the Olympics tonight showed the difference winning and losing can make. Kelly Holmes in the 800m was magnificent, and the shock on her face will probably be all over the front pages tomorrow. That she only decided to run this race last week was surely a bluff, no?

Contrast her win with Paula Radcliffe last night. At first I felt she had let herself down in the way she had ‘given up’. In hindsight that was harsh – the conditions were tougher than I had realised. I would have struggled to walk never mind run a mile in that heat. To see her still upset today and admitting she was baffled as to her loss of form shows just how difficult it is for her to even understand what she went through. I thought last night it was an odd time to run a marathon as I always remembered from previous games that it took place in the early morning. It’s no surprise to read today that it’s believed the run was held in the late afternoon for American TV. I guess we’ll never know how different the outcome would have been if it had started 10 hours earlier.

 

Olympics

The performances by GB in the Olympics over the last 3 days have been superb. Highlight had to be the coxless fours yesterday morning. Not only was the race good to watch, but seeing Pincent crying on the podium brought home how much effort these guys put in and what it means to them. The cyclists have also been good to watch and the sailors have done well although I’ve had more fun watching Rangers in Europe than trying to sit through a sailing competition. It makes snooker almost watchable.

Hopefully more success today for Paula Radcliffe in what will be a tough race in the early evening heat.

Work Hell

This has been a terrible week at work. Quite possibly the worst ever and definitely the worst this year by a country mile. Worse is that the rant that was about to unfold here will have to wait for another rainy day (tomorrow?!?) as that familiar migraine feeling has arrived. Like someone pressing down on the back of my eye and a slightly blurred vision on the screen. Popped 2 pinks for what its worth as in half an hour I’ll be in agony in a blacked out room trying to sleep this off.

Hopefully tomorrow things won’t seem so bad.

Bargain

Xbox for £99 from 27th August. An absolute steal and by far the best console you could buy if you’ve not already got one. And if you’ve got broadband – get an Xbox. The online gaming is superb compared to Sony’s. I’m still a beta tester for Sony’s online offerings and they have been pretty poor in comparison. Killzone is due to be delivered for testing this week though and it does look amazing if not the Halo beater it was once thought to be. The website is stunning though. Really wets the appetite.

That aside, the list of cracking games on the Xbox is large – much larger than the PS2. For example Halo, Links, Top Spin, PGR 2, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and the upcoming Halo 2 which looks soooooo much better in the graphics and gameplay departments than Killzone. And these are the exclusive games. Buronout 3 and Pro Evo soccer are due in the next couple of months on both consoles – Xbox will have better graphics and sound than the PS2 with better online support (although thats only a hope for Pro Evo as nothing is confirmed).

So spend that £99 wisely – get an Xbox. And if you’ve already got one, buy another and chip it, add a large hard disk and create the biggest games machine known to man. You can also install Xbox Media Center and create a fantastic media machine too. Joy. Even better Xbox Media Center now supports iTunes – woo-hoo. I feel an update session coming on.

ATI Drivers

There’s a new version of catalyst drivers out – 4.8 – grab them here. For the last two years I hadn’t bothered keeping up to date with drivers as the old pc started to get long in the tooth. The difference between each version seemed minimal except Battlefield 1942 needed the latest drivers all the time – every patch wouldn’t work unless I upgraded the driver- never had that with any other game.

However the new pc has changed that. Not strictly true – Doom 3 has changed that. The mearest sniff of a new driver and the download has started. Except these drivers are 26Meg in size. 26! Bloody hell. Bloaty or what. My old drivers were around 5Meg. Progress, eh? Hope they are worth it – a 5% improvement in framerates is promised.