Back-story since my last post; Still no word about this network investingation. I was told I would get a call back on Monday afternoon. Guess what? I never got it! What a shocker!

So when I got home from work, I had a very long phone call with a woman called Dawn at o2, went through the whole story again and told her that my direct debit has been cancelled and I’ll be cancelling the contract, with no charges to me etc etc. Something surprised my though during this phone call. Dawn was actually a very nice person, was very understanding and in an even bigger shocker, she was helpful too! So much so that she also gave me a solution to the problem!

She basically said that o2 would drag this out for weeks and weeks before the issue would be sorted. All that the network investigation would confirm is the amount of data that was downloaded, and that I would have to send my phone off to them for a thourough check-up. If there was nothing wrong with the phone, then I would have no choice but to pay the £1,000 bill and be well and truly stuffed up the shitter.

Dawn then pointed out that the best thing to do would be to put a charge on my acount of around £30 which gives me a download limit of 30gb for GPRS usage. This would be a one-off charge that she would back-date to before the downloads started. This will then credit the grand showing on my account and all will be sorted.
All she needed to do was get the department head to approve it.
5 minutes of being on hold and she returns.

The plan has been approved! She fills in the form while I’m on the phone to her and she also emails me a confirmation that she has sent the form to the powers that be. In a few days, I should see a credit on my account. I thanked Dawn so much, I actually threatened to find out where she worked and give her a big sloppy kiss!

There’s a lesson here kids. If you have a problem with something, don’t go in all guns blazing. Be polite, don;t get stroppy and if you do manage to let a few swear words slip through (like I did!) then apologise for it! You’ll find things get done easier and quicker that way!

Moving on, yesterday I logged into the o2 website and checked the “recent charges” part and there we have it! The credit has been applied! I am now a happy chappie! So when the bill arrives from o2, I’ll take it to the store, pay it, and get the direct debit re-instated. But take note, when the contract is up, it will be cancelled and I’ll be onto pay as you go. No more all-singing-all-dancing phones.

For now anyway…

I’ve come to the conclusion today that I need to stop buying new games. Period!

Fact is that at the moment, I’m just not finding enough time to devote attention to playing through and enjoying the ones I’ve got, never mind playing on Live (damn you Call of Duty 4 and your addictively good multiplayer!!!).  This realisation came about when I ordered three games during the January sales, namely The Godfather, Conan, and Stranglehold.  Games I wouldn’t pay full price for, but seeing as I got all three for around £50 altogether, not bad really.

I happily placed my orders, then next time I switched the 360 on, the pile of unfinished games sitting right next to it stared at me.  They actually did stare, quite unnerving it was too; you’d be amazed how menacing a DVD case can look in the wrong light!

In that pile is Assasain’s Creed, which I’ve only managed to get about a third of the way through; Lego Star Wars Complete Saga in which not even Episode One is finished; Half Life 2: Episode 2, the surface of which has only been scratched; skate., Oh Christ, skate! One of the best skateboard games ever with tons left to do and unlock; Smackdown Vs RAW 2007; the Wii is also waiting for Super Mario Galaxy and Resi Evil 4 to be completed.

My gaming time has (rightfully so) been cut dramatically since the arrival of little Ben, and to be honest this does sound a bit pathetic considering that my son is ever so slightly more important than anything else.  But then I don’t go out on the town anymore, I don’t smoke, maybe watch the occasional DVD or film with the lady.  Gaming is my main past time and the thing I draw most enjoyment from as entertainment in my free time, so I still like to indulge when I can.

And I’ve just added three more games on top of that!  Am I frickin’ mad?

Yes, I can imagine you all nodding away right now in agreement with that last question, but then this isn’t unique to me.  The last few years has I believe, seen an increase in the amount of desirable titles being released within a certain amount of time which brings us game players (I hate the word ‘gamers’, sounds a bit too MTV-generated-label for me) into the age old predicament of which games we choose.  Especially when you’re talking £40/$60 a pop, depending on which side of the pond you’re on.

I suppose the solution is a simple choice of quit gaming altogether (highly unlikely), bite the bullet and sell off those games that I just know I’m not going to get around to playing through properly, or stop buying new ones until I’ve got through the ones I have (we’ll have PS24/7 and Xbox720 by then!).

I wonder what the best price online is for Burnout Paradise right now?…

…Damn it, I’m doing it again!!!

Or am I about to get rodgered up the shitter by o2? I dunno.

Following on from this post about my GPRS charges last week, I decided to give them a call on Monday to see how things were going on the report that they had raised on the usage. No news yet. Still takes about a week to sort out. Or so they say. So I gave them a couple more days to get on with it.

I call them this morning, and I get a miserable woman called Rosie at their end. SO I explained what I’m chasing up, and guess what? Still no news! But she did send an email to the technical chappie to give me a call and let me know where he’s up to. That was about 9:15 this morning. It’s now 10:35 and still no call from him. I have a feeling that this is going to go on for ages.

I’ll give them until tomorrow, then I’m going to call them up again. If I still don;t get anymore news from them, I’m going to cancel the direct debit I have, and then I’m sure that they’ll

A/ Give me the answers that I want
or
B/ Send me to court for non-payment of £1,019.40

I also got an email from BT the other day saying that I went 15gb over my monthly usage. But being that they’re so kind, they wont charge me on this occasion. But next time they’ll charge me 30p per gb over the norm. That’ll teach me for downloading demos, games and movies from Xbox Live!

So far, technology-wise, and a few personal bits, 2008 has been a bit shit. I’m hoping that it can only get better, but that would be tempting fate, wouldn’t it…

You may now officially stick your phone and your contract and especially, your GPRS charges up your shitter.

Lots of love

Paul Sunter

Sorry, you’ll want a story to go with this won’t you! Well here goes…

Yesterday while sitting at my desk, doing the usual worky stuff (browsing the internet) I received a text message from o2. “You have gone over your normal monthly charge by £233″. W…T…F I exclaimed in quite a load manner, as you’d imagine. Obviously a phone call to o2 had to be made.

“Well sir, it turns out that on the 30th December, you downloaded 92mb worth of data on your mobile phone”. OK. This doesn’t make sense. The last time GPRS was used was on the 20th December when we had a power cut at work, and the phone was definatly not used on the 30th December. After asking what was downloaded…”we don’t know sir. We don’t have that information to hand” Helpful. Is there any way I can see what has been downloaded on my phone from here? “No sir. I don’t think anyone here knows how to use an XDA Orbit. Best you go to your nearest o2 store and ask them”. Oh for fucks sake.

Here’s a hint. o2 Customer service are about as useful as a chocolate frying pan. Don’t bother even thinking about ringing them.
So off I trot to the o2 store in Blackburn. Luckily, they were a lot more helpful than the *insert foreign country* person that I spoke to on the phone yesterday. They were very helpful infact. Umm, too helpful possibly.

“Umm, sir, your phone has now downloaded over 350mb of data and your bill is now currently over 1,000 pounds”. If you’re under 18, I would look away now. Actually, and surprisingly, I was quite calm about the situation! It was a funny reaction when I told Gem, when she’d trotted back from browsing in Next. Now I would deffinatly look away if you’re under 18…

FUCK OFF she shouted quite loudly! It was quite an amusing moment!

It turns out that my phone has been (apparently) downloading data without my knowlege. The bloke in the store had a root through my phone to see if anything was stored. It’d have a job though considering there isn’y even enough space to store 100mb, let alone 300mb! It “may” be a fault with the phone. If so, I won’t have to pay the bill. If it isn’t the phone though, I really can’t be paying over a grand for something that I have’t done!

A report is currently being done at o2 to see exactly what’s happening, but that’s going to take around 5 days. Cue much ringing of said company and chasing up!

Updates on this subject will be forthcoming!

First off I’d like to say I do actually like Stuff magazine. So much so that for the past two years I have given a 12 month subscription of it to a friend who enjoys it just as much as I do, but I have to say I was very annoyed to find, whilst flicking through the November 2007 edition, the front cover screaming about a feature inside called “Superconsole Smackdown - PS3 (in very big letters) vs Wii (in smaller letters) - (You probably get the picture already.)

Now I’d like to add that I probably will get a Wii in the near future - the so-called “pick-up-ability” is phenomenal. My 6 year old daughter picked up the controller to play Bowling on Wii sports during the Christmas period and without any training other than that offered by the game initially she managed to beat me completely. This phenomenon is something no other console can compete with. Yet.

Anyhow, back to main topic, that being Stuff mag’s over-apparent PS3 fanboy-ism.

In the feature itself the PS3 gets an amazing 8 advantages and only 3 disadvantages. Of the eight advantages one of them is the free on-line gaming. Free, yes. I can’t disagree with that. Supported and looked-after, with a continuous feed of cash to keep it going, I think not. Another advantage is that it is backwards compatible with PS2 games. Worth remembering that one. Of the cons, they mention the lack of rumble feature and the cost. Just a little mention though. £425 isn’t too expensive is it? In the list of the nine most wonderful games for the PS3 is apparently Sonic the Hedgehog. Ummmm, a games mag this is not. Then they have a lovely page on Blu-Ray movies. Unfortunately Blu-Ray is slowly dying if the Amazon Christmas hi-def movie sales figures are anything going by.

The next console on the list is the Wii. A snip at only £180, though it’s more recently been found on sale at £169. This console has seven advantages and just four dis-advantages. One of the pro’s is its backwards compatibility with Gamecube games. Another is WiiConnect 24 which means the console updates over the net whilst it’s switched off - nice! This also has a rumble pack oh, and the mag also makes a little mention of the completely innovative control method which for me IS the Wii. Oh, and it also plays DVD’s. For the cons we get the fact that it’s not the most powerful console going and also if you’re a hardcore gamer you might not like swapping control methods again and again. Us human-folk obviously aren’t that intelligent then. Darn it.

Last, and apparently least as far as Stuff is concerned is the Xbox 360.

It has just three advantages - one of which is the sublime gaming experience as the hi-def graphics through the component output is very good. Apparently there are also a wealth of games and xbox live is a superb online experience. For the cons there is no HDMI output - true, until the Elite came along. The fan is a little loud and the power brick is a little large. Yes, I agree with both of these.

The mag thankfully bothers to list six HD-DVD movies that you can get and a staggering THREE games (from the wealth of games the 360 has - see advantages) that you must own. HALO isn’t even mentioned, nor is Bioshock (Didn’t that win some silly little award like Game Of The Year?). COD4, PGR4 (or 3) don’t get a mention either - in fact the games mentioned are Dead Rising, Oblivion and ruddy Table Tennis. Come on Stuff, you’re not even trying here.

One big advantage not even thought of is that it’s just a little more than half the price of the 360. With the cash saved you could get yourself five more full-price games. There is a little mention of the Xbox Live service - the fact you have to pay for it over the PS3’s free service - isn’t even mentioned. They forget to mention the console is also backwards compatible with almost the entire Xbox catalogue and with Xbox Live’s continued updates (because it’s paid for) you can download movies, TV shows and previous Xbox games, via the ‘net.

Unfortunately from the start it was plainly clear which console was going to get Stuff’s “Hot Pick” of the three and it was little surprise that the PS3 won the battle. The 360 is in fact marked with just four out of five stars. The Wii get’s the full five and the PS3 gets five plus the magical ‘Hot Pick’.

In the summing up the 360 gets little praise. Its apparent ‘old-fashioned tactics’ and ‘lack of innovation’ leave the Wii and PS3 to battle it out. The Wii gets a knock for being low-tech. Again the 360 takes a punch from the summing of the Wii as ‘un-inventive’ and apparently could only stand and watch as the Wii’s wireless controllers took on the PS3. (Have they mentioned the PS3 enough?)

The PS3 gets high-praise for being last into the field with its weaponry perfected apparently (lack of rumble feature anyone?) They claim in their summing up that the motion sensitive controller beats the innovative Wii controller hands down as it ‘pitches to the side in an evasive manoeuvre) However they have saved the best to last as the PS3’s blu-ray capabilities ‘cut through the air and the invisible Wi-Fi streams command its media hordes.’ And with that Stuff claim they have their winner.

I doubt anyone can call the PS3 perfect - the only console in my mind to come close is possibly the Wii and only if we’re ready to leave the ‘best graphics = best game’ equation out. The Wii is a next-gen console only because of its controller (which is fantastic) - the claims that the PS3’s controller whilst motion sensitive beats that of the Wii is just preposterous and stupid. It’s almost as good as saying the because the Blackberry 8820 comes with GPS built in it’s better than having a TomTom on your car dashboard. Then we move onto the blu-ray stuff, I think I’ve covered that one. It may be a re-run of Betamax and VHS but I’m afraid the HD-DVD format is winning, the fact that the PS3 is titled as the cheapest Blu-Ray player going should have given the game away really. It’s not bloody rocket science is it?

Then we come to the very last statement. The built in Wi-Fi. I must have been dreaming when the Wii effortlessly connected to the wireless network, seamlessly updating itself overnight. The 360 was a little more tricky and required an adapter, but once connected it works and can also stream movies, images, etc. using the Media Extender, software built into Windows Media Player. (Windows? Isn’t that the OS that most people use? Why yes, it is. Strange that.)

Whilst I’m certainly not paid to be an electronics, gadget or gaming journalist I do like to keep an open mind and believe that the PS3 does have some advantages over the other two consoles but by no means is it as clear a winner as they make out. In my mind the 360 and the Wii bring up the front of the battle with the PS3 following closely behind.

As I said earlier it was plainly apparent from the start which console had already won. The initial paragraph stated that the Stuff magazine crew had been caught up in the PS3 hype and they ‘know just how good it is’. I hope I never see another piece of so blatantly biased journalism again. Unfortunately I know I will. I just hope no-one reads it and takes it as fact. Don’t believe everything you read. Please. (Unless it’s on this blog!)