The recent announcement that Microsoft were recalling 14.1 million Xbox power cables because of a slight risk of setting alight and destroying everything you own was met with mirth by some. One of my Xboxes was affected but I wasn’t too worried considering that cable had been plugged in for the best part of three years and had powered two Xboxes without once killing anyone, but I sent off for the replacement anyway. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

On Saturday I got home from work around lunchtime to find a package had arrived with “Xbox Protection Cable” slapped on the side – no great surprise that it was the new Xbox cable. I was faily impressed with what was in the box – a cable with it’s own dedicated surge protector and buttons to test and reset it. For all their elaborate new cables though, Microsoft apparently couldn’t tell which plug the UK used. Some idiot sent me one with a European plug.

I could have understood the blunder had the package come from wage slaves in the Far East, but this had been packaged, labelled, and sent by someone within the UK to a UK address with a non-UK plug. How exactly does someone not notice this when it’s sent out? I called Microsoft and was informed, from a French call centre no less (I thought the point of outsourcing call centres was to send them to places where people would work for nothing), that I was one of many calling in with the same problem and that I’d now have to wait 4-6 weeks for a replacement to make its way to me.

Just when they thought having to put that a falling Xbox could kill small children in the manual wasn’t embarrassing enough, we find out that they can burn you alive. Then they taunt you with the fact that you’re powerless against your Xbox’s malignity by giving you a weapon that is useless to fight it.

My tinfoil hat tells me that it’s all part of Microsoft’s plan to enslave the people of world under the mastery of their home appliances. You may already know too much…

“BT is increasing the speed of all our packages, for both new and existing customers, at no extra charge.”

YEAH!!

My current 512k connection is OK but I’m certainly not going to complain at a free upgrade to 2Mb. It’s about time that they got with the times over here and dropped the 512k connections considering most other countries with prevalent broadband use have been at a minimum of 1Mb download for a while now. I can’t wait!

You may have noticed the overhaul of this site, by far the biggest since I set it up over two years ago. Apart from the obvious cosmetic change, the backend has been completely changed from the grossly inefficient, hand-coded HTML system to a new PHP and database system running under WordPress. Not only should the look be cleaner, but it will make updating the site infinitely easier and more frequent.

The old content will be ported when I get around to it, but the site will shift focus to become more of a blog on what I’m getting up to as an aspiring games journalist as I study for my journalism degree, and maybe some more surprises. Stay tuned.

There will be more changes on the way as I finish setting up the theme, but I welcome feedback.

Previous years have seen me do occasional pieces of freelance for various sources, but as 2005 marks my first year as an official journalist-in-training, I’m stepping up my efforts to do even more and, frankly, I’m really excited about some of it.

I had been planning on going to E3 this year since it’s likely that we’ll see some new consoles – Xbox 2 should be pretty definite and it’s reasonable to assume that we’ll see something of PlayStation 3 – but it looks like exams at uni will put paid to that idea, much as I’d prefer to be in Kentia Hall than in an exam hall.

Last year I helped out IGN with their coverage of EGN/Game Stars Live (now Game Zone Live) at the London ExCeL and, as long as they’ll have me again, I’ll be doing that for three days at the beginning of September. It’s good fun even if the show is no E3. Last year had some cool opportunities like playable Halo 2 (if you wanted to wait four hours, absurdly); playable, if slightly buggy, Splinter Cell 3; playable STALKER; etc, and hopefully the show will have gained enough credibility to get more exhibitors, and maybe even the return of Sony from their jaunt up to Alton Towers.

At the beginning of the summer I’ve got a placement to go back to Highbury (formerly Paragon) where I’ll spend two weeks probably doing menial tasks, but at least I can re-establish my name with them. Most jobs for journalists straight out of university are at former work experience places and I can think of worse places to work than there, if it ever comes to that.

The final, and definitely best, piece of work is that I’m going to this years’ Tokyo Game Show. Yes, Tokyo as in Japan, as if there was any other. It’s been a dream of mine to go to Japan for as long as I can remember, pretty much since I’ve had an interest in gaming, and now those Japanese lessons might pay off. Me and a group of mates are going to Japan for two weeks and taking in Akihabara, the rest of Tokyo, and maybe even more of Japan as well as dropping in on TGS for a day. It’s going to be expensive and it’s going to almost completely drain my cash, but it will be worth it.

Here’s hoping that something good comes of all this.

Welcome to the first post on my blog, where I plan to chart my progress on the way to becoming a video games journalist.

I can’t remember when this desire started, but suffice it to say that I’ve always enjoyed writing and I’ve always enjoyed video games, so becoming a games journalist has always seemed like the obvious choice of career.

My “big break” came when I did work experience at the tender age of 15 at Paragon Publishing in my home town of Bournemouth. I guess they liked some of my work because I was offered a freelance contract and things have progressed from there. I did some work for them and when IGN were looking for someone to write a weekly article on the UK gaming scene I stepped up. I no longer do that but still do reasonably frequent freelance work such as covering the UK Halo 2 launch and helping out with coverage of UK shows like EGN/Game Stars Live.

I’ve now got freelance on the backburner somewhat as I study at the Southampton Institute for a degree in journalism, but I’m going to keep this blog updated as I continue on the path to becoming a proper games journalist. That’s the idea, at least.