I very much doubt it, but this article thinks it could and makes for interesting reading.

While I don’t think the article is going to turn out to be much more than conjecture, what really interested me is the information about Sony’s financial state. We all know that Microsoft has billions to burn and that Bill Gates lives in a solid gold house with a rocket car and that they can basically throw money at the 360 until it starts selling, but when Sony haven’t been doing too well recently and the PSP starting to struggle in the battle for hearts and minds, it remains to be seen how much of a loss they can actually afford.

Even if Blu-Ray is technically superior to HD-DVD it’s coming to market later, costs twice as much for first-generation players ($1,000 compared to $500), doesn’t have the DVD name, and the recent announcement that movies will retail for around $30 hasn’t been met with much rejoicing. Looks like the next few months and years will be intriguing ones for Sony fans.

I’m sure that this is really old news for anyone in the US, but season 5 of 24 starts here in the UK on Sunday at 9pm on Sky One. I just finished rewatching season 4 on DVD (if you need any they’re all on sale on Play for great prices) and I’ve now seen the first three episodes of the new one by slightly illicit means. I would be watching them as they showed here but, like with last year and the year before, I’m not up for six months of wrestling over the remote for control of the sole TV with Sky. I can rationalise it due to the fact that I’ll buy the DVD on the day of release.

From what I’ve seen I’m going to like this one. Not only have they turned it into Die Hard 2, it seems to be going back to the roots of 24 a bit by making things more personal. They’ve resisted the temptation to go for another “generic Middle Eastern terrorist attacks LA with random WMD” story which is a good thing – the first season had nothing nearly as big as a nuclear or biological attack but still manages to be generally accepted as the best of the lot and I hope this goes the same way.

One thing that had disappointed me was that even though the ending to season 4 left the door open for something completely new (I was even expecting a break from CTU with Jack hiding out in South America or somewhere like that), they’ve still managed to get him back in that direction. I don’t know how much has been shown so far in the US since I’m only up to the third episode, but already he’s getting back in with them. Maybe the Chinese will come and kill him at the halfway point.

I’d be interested to hear any impressions from other people, but please keep anything as spoiler free as you can.

I’ve maintained all along that the Xbox 360 Core pack was a really stupid idea, something that was backed up when it was announced that Final Fantasy XI, as crappy as it is, won’t even work without the HDD. Now take a look at this:

Admittedly it’s probably not a game that’ll sell by the bucketload, at least outside the UK, but look at that little icon in the bottom left. It really doesn’t look good for the Core system when only a couple of months into the console’s lifespan we already have two games out of what is a fairly small number anyway that won’t work on it.

Not only that, but this is another small PR disaster for Microsoft when people who bought a brand new console that they were told would play everything find that they need an accessory that’s impossible to find at the moment. Unless they drop the Core soon, this effectively turns the HDD into an add-on in the same vein as the Mega CD and 32X. Let’s hope that it’s less 64DD and more N64 Expansion Pak.