Best Of Guardian Gamesblog 5-11 October

In the week that saw the news of the LHC at CERN possibly being sabotaged from a particle it created in the future travelling back through time to sabotage the experiment that created it, a little piece of the past came back the other way. What wasn’t reported in the news was that also out of History came the condensed musings of one week of Guardian Gamesblog chatter, and now, thanks to that cosmic hiccup, I present to you...

Monday, 5th October was a day like many that had passed before it, not nearly because silveryfox managed to grab a 6th first in a row, showing the level of dedication that has previously been seen only in his dedication to Wipeout. He went onto grab a 7th before the title was snatched away from him by Pokemon (not the actual creatures). It was also a cold day, with the breath of commuters crystalising in the pre-dawn air and the sudden shift to autumn was noticed by a few bloggers who dutifully complained of the cold, the dark and the way lycra shorts chafe at this time of year.

FIFA10 was on the cards for most of the day, with the blog split between those who had it, those who were desperately waiting for it and those who were steadfastly not going to get it because they had their heart set on PES. SuperSmashIn was hoping the game shaped birthday present he’d found was a copy of FIFA whilst GranaryThorax had the most heartrending story about not being able to play due to an XBox RROD, but it was mainly passed over by the unfeeling bloggers and we’ll do the same here.

Monday’s enthusiasm for the game carried on through the week, and ruminations of a chatterbox league to rival the dominance of PES, and games of 10 Chatterboxers taking on the world in the manner that had seen them do so well at Killzone, were heard from many corners. PES players were able to delight in a touch of schadenfreude be Wednesday, however, as it became apparent that FIFA online was terrible, much as it had been with PES. Only bigworv had a word of warning amidst the general revelry, cautioning,

Rather than revel in the delicious comedy of it all I'm going to take a pessimistic stance. If FIFA online is now borked, how heinous is PES10 going to be?

Only time would tell, and indeed probably has by now. There may also have been a few bloggers who don’t like football games but they don’t really matter and as for me, I’m still waiting for it to be delivered from Tesco.

More online football woe beset the ‘box this week as it became evident that the In-ger-lund Ukraine world cup qualifier would only be available online from an “entertainment company”, for a fee. SuperSmashIn, I feel, summed up the thoughts of the box when he opined,

“THIS COUNTRY”

Our lives, however, were considerably brightened by the introduction of avatars that didn’t look like chess pieces caught in a Sony Bravia commercial as Guardian allowed us to express ourselves in picture form. Charles Arthur’s eyes are all seeing, however, and many first attempts were cruelly, and probably quite rightly, rejected. Some did manage to make it through first time, and a more rounded view of our fellow chatterers was seen. Some going for the literal, as BeardofBees with his picture of a man with a beard of, well, bees I presume, although some went a bit too literal (Looking at Spew). Others went for games related avatars and a special few chose something close to their hearts, like Limni “These are a pair of Air Max 360/95 hybrids and are my holy grail” And Shewrog, who chose a picture of a doner kebab. My award for the best avatar, however, goes to Killerbee, with a picture of a bee with a minigun. What do you call a bee with a minigun? Answer: Anything it wants you to. Ahh. Comedy.

Things took a more serious note on Thursday, when ChairofRust chose to forgo the Sexual Healing column in favour of the blog’s advice on relationships,

No gaming last night as had a long and drawn out argument with the girlfriend regarding a male friend of hers who has declared his undying love for her and apparently is waiting for me to slip up....... which she sees no problem with!

AlunEvans was first to respond, with the succinct advice that “if she can't see why you're upset then she's a wierdo”. Others were more blasé about the whole affair (sorry), pointing out that the only reasons she’d have told him this were that either she didn’t take it seriously or she wanted him to start paying her more attention, neither of which are necessarily bad. Even if things do get out of hand, Killerbee reminded him that quite a few chatterboxers had already worked out ‘contingency plans’ for dealing with just this sort of situation. Plastic bags and hacksaws at the ready, gents, and don’t forget the quicklime.

Once again the blog seemed to have pre-empted all the major news sources, as news of the postal strike broken on the blog was finally repeated throughout the mainstream press. Many bloggers had already felt its effects, through delay to online shopping orders and Flaming Lips tickets which arrived a full after they were posted. Killerbee was on hand once again to provide a wise word to all,

“You'd have thought the Unions would've learned that strike action without public support for services that are no longer state monopolies is only going to be doomed to failure, but no, they still seem to be carrying on..”

Very wise words indeed. Shame no one reads this crap apart from us, eh?

And so along came Friday, starting as the week began with a first post silveryfox. Now we see the reason for his name. The man is an animal. Elsewhere on Bill Oddie’s Autumn BlogWatch, Shewrog reported to have seen a rare sighting of two women kissing close to the basketball court where he’d be quote abused unquote earlier in the week. One can only wonder. Friday continued in the same vein as the previous four days, with the majority of the chat concerning FIFA and various attempts to coordinate online play. However, other games were managing to get more a mention, with Smike whetting a few appetites with his opinions of Operation Flashpoint 2 (“probably not quite as murderously unforgiving as the original one”) and a few bloggers organising games of CIV4, but mainly it was FIFA all the way.

A few murmurs were also heard of a ‘meat-up’ happening in the far flung future, with cautionary tales about Hayers abound and discussions about suitable venues worthy of such an honour. But that, as they say, is another story...

Quote of the week

“Overreacting? (Did I mention he is better looking and covered in muscles ....... albeit with the personality of a plank of wood?)”

ChairofRust showing his fear that his girlfriend is only after him for his personality.