Myself and Andrew Griffiths round up a weekend that was full of UFC action in Manchester. We have a full card run down, live reactions, fun happenings before the show and our future predictions looking forward.
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Monthly Archive for April, 2007
Our trip this weekend to Manchester was absolutely amazing and we all had a great time. I still can’t believe how everything fell into place and I don’t think words can do it justice so I’ll just post these photos instead.
Thanks everybody! We won’t forget it!
I was in total shock when Serra knocked out GSP in the first round. It was a colossal upset that nobody but Serra predicted going in. My opinion of how well fighters will fare in their upcoming bouts is usually dictated by how they have performed in the past. Serra barely beat Chris Lytle in the Ultimate Fighter Finals and as such I didn’t give him much of a chance against the guy who destroyed Matt Hughes. Of course this was wrong as Serra whipped GSP on his feet. In other sports usually younger athletes perform the best as they are in their physical prime but in MMA, where experience and confidence are just as important as anything else, the older guys are getting things done. All of the UFC’s champions are over 30 now.
If the start of this year has taught us anything it’s that any fighter can beat any other fighter on any given day. This would lead some to say that unranked fighters, as Randy Couture and Matt Serra were, should not be given title shots. Of course they earned their shots in different ways but they both rose to the occasion and proved that they belonged in that position. Just be glad they are title fights and we are not left with the mess Pride has with Gomi being beaten in non title fights.
It will be interesting to see Serra’s first defence against Matt Hughes. About the only good thing that happened on The Ultimate Fighter 4 was their feud. It never resulted in a match so hopefully they will use all that footage to build the fight. As for GSP I could see him taking on Diego Sanchez or Josh Koscheck. If GSP gets a win there he could easily be back in the title picture and ready to take on the winner of Hughes vs Serra. And with the potential for some Pride fighters being thrown into the mix things get even more interesting.
Major Nelson just announced the downloadable tracks for Guitar Hero 2 on Xbox 360. Lets break down the cost.
500 points for 3 tracks. Thats £1.42 per song. They are re-releases of Guitar Hero 1 tracks which featured 47 playable songs. So they value the song library alone of the original Guitar Hero at £66.58!! I paid £50 for Guitar Hero on PS2 with a guitar and the rest of the game. Bullshit! No deal Activision.
From Xbox.com about the spring update,
- Added H.264 video support: Up to 10 Mbps peak, Baseline, Main, and High profiles with 2 channel AAC LC.
- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 5 Mbps peak, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC.
Potential for x264 and Xvid compatibility me thinks! Hells yes!
If the announcement of the Xbox 360 ‘Elite’ edition showed anything it was that Microsoft are desperately trying to return their gaming division back to profit as soon as possible, something they haven’t been able to achieve since the 2004 release of Halo 2. As a result we will have a high end 360 that is bordering on the price of the PS3, a ludicrously overpriced 120GB hard drive and no changes in hardware or price at the core and premium levels.
To remain competitive many people expected them to drop the premium down to the core price and introduce the elite at the premium price - ditching the crippled core system completely. Even though they haven’t gone this far I think they really need to go one step further.
Two systems. Both with HDMI and WiFi built in. The only difference being the hard drive size - one is 20gb and the other is 120GB, at current core and premium price points. To address these points separately,
- HDMI should be in every system from here on out. They have a new motherboard revision and it would make more sense to roll it out across the full range and thus bring the manufacturing price down. It’s stupid to just make an HDMI specific board for the few who choose the elite.
- WiFi is standard. In everything. The Nintendo DS with WiFi costs ¬£100. The Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter costs ¬£60. These numbers do not add up, plain and simple. The argument from Microsoft (via Major Nelson’s elite announcement podcast) is that they don’t want to bundle something that will become obsolete soon i.e. when 802.11n gets ratified. Utter rubbish, that’s like saying we won’t bundle the processor because a faster one will be out next month. Hell if it really bothers you so much go make the chip upgradable through firmware like Apple have. They have no excuse for this one.
- Hard drives in all systems. I can only identify two groups of people for the different hard drive sizes. There are the games focused people and then there are the people who want to game, download lots of TV and movies and maybe dabble in IPTV when it’s available. So a 20gb and a 120gb model - easy. Scratch the core as it’s crippled without any storage. Oh and the real reason why you can’t put your own hard drive in? Again listening closely to the Major Nelson podcast it’s clear that the only reason they have deals with the movie studios and TV networks is because the system is so closed and locked down. Moving your own hard drives in and out would obviously violate that.
I really like my 360 and feel it has easily the best games line up right now and in the future. This is why it’s disappointing to see Microsoft not being aggressive enough on the hardware front. No one expected Sony to be in such a poor position right now and Microsoft need to do more to capitalise on the small lead they have. The longer they leave it the less likely they are to close the gap in the long run. Strike while the iron is hot.
The organisation that delivers the statistics for video game sales cannot go around giving opinions and making comments on what those numbers mean. They should be a neutral organisation that delivers facts only.
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