By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor Since this topic has been blogged to death, I shall avoid the well-trodden Mortal Kombat/GTA/Manhunt route and focus on some of the more interesting and bizarre controversies that have been stirred up by the video games medium from its blocky, monochromatic emergence in the 1970s until… just about… [...]
Trawling through eBay, yields some fascinating results, and after reading a few tales of the adventures of other eBay users, I decided to make my own journey through the wild undergrowth that is eBay’s “Weird” section. There amidst the bondage gear and sex toys, I found some truly bizarre auctions that the seller’s seem to [...]
By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor We all like to bitch about the rubbishness of games based on movies, and with good reason: in order to make a quick buck, idea-deficient developers seem to have a conveyor-belt of mediocrity that turns every crappy Hollywood blockbuster into an equally crappy (or even crappier) video game. [...]
Collecting. It’s a bizarre habit, isn’t it? Be it stamps, coins, bottle tops, beer or anything, there is some innate compulsion to amass a set of items that only truly have value to the collectors or to others that share their passion (or are as willing to use their virgin credit card or MBNA credit [...]
By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor Ever since Haunted House appeared on the Magnavox Odyssey back in 1972, many video game developers have been refining their dark arts in order to create games of increasing complexity and sophistication with one aim: to scare the crap out of us. Recent major releases such as F.E.A.R [...]
In a world where everything is becoming increasingly digitized and where whole reams of information are readily accessible via the internet and electronic libraries, extreme value is still being placed on the humble book. People are willing to pay incredible sums of money (whilst at the same time waving goodbye to their cash ISAs and [...]
By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor If you’re anything like me then every year you read the highly-excitable previews of the forthcoming major movies and feel idealistic seeds of childlike anticipation forming. Around this time last year I, like many, was considering the cinematic wonders that lay before me like an eager child on [...]
If you thought 2008 was a big year for video games then check out a few of next year’s biggest titles… (All release dates as listed on Amazon.) 1. Killzone 2 Format: PlayStation 3 Release date: 1st Feb (US) / 26th Feb (UK) Though the over-hyped PS2 original was something of a let down, the [...]
By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor Christmas traditionally brings us many things: socks and other tired gift clichés, a few hundred tons of wasted food, bulging credit card debts, crap songs, overflowing landfill sites, cirrhosis of the liver and, more relevantly, Hollywood’s annual attempts at making a few yuletide bucks. As you may guess [...]
By Rassam Fakour-Zaker Know Your Money Editor Time Magazine Person of the Year 2005, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Messiah of Rock ‘n’ Roll™, Guardian of Humanity™, Saviour of Africa™, Patron Saint of Cowboy Hats™. He’s probably to busy to get around to this, so [...]
