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In about 4-5 hours the stores open in Japan and the first PS3 will be sold; well hopefully they won’t just sit there! To tide you over until next week’s US launch here is a link to the PS3 manual.

• PS3 Manual online

A lot of big things happening this weekend, many of them without me (can’t be in three places at once):

• The launch of the PS3 in Japan
• The AOPA Expo 2006 in Palm Springs, seems like I miss it every year it in CA
• The Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo. The event has already started but this weekend sees the highlight with the parade Saturday morning, and the various rodeos throughout the weekend. Yee-hah! And all that.

Regardless of whether online gambling should be legal or not, I really don’t understand how outlawing it improves Port Security or makes America safer from terrorists? There’s a lot of crazy crap done in the name of safety but this one is way out there.

The World Cup is almost here so what better way to get in the mood than 2006 FIFA World Cup from EA Sports.

Sadly, I have to report that my general mood was of frustration with the game. Biggest problem is probably one of their big selling points – realistic stadium shading. Playing an afternoon game cast a huge dark shadow over a large part of the pitch and every time the action moved into it I could barely make out the players on my TV. I quickly grew to prefer evening kick-offs. There is also some choppiness in the game, it doesn’t play smoothly like the other FIFA games I have (’05 and ’06).

I expected it to play like FIFA ’06 but it doesn’t. I found making an attack much more difficult that before, the players didn’t seem to run into position like before. Now this could be because of the new control system but it seems that someone familiar with previous versions shouldn’t have to struggle.

The commentary is pretty good though I do miss the good old days of John Motson and Ally McCoist which I think is the pinnacle of in-game commentary, somehow they managed to capture the genuine humour between the two that existed in real life. You don’t get the same feel from Andy Gray (who I believe is the commentator for this series).

Over all, I am a little disappointed, but the fact that I get to play the current World Cup draw helps make up for that. So, I give it 3.5 out of 5.

Emptied the bag of swag at the weekend, I did better than many here but not as well as I had anticipated. Largely this was because it was quite difficult or time consuming to get any good stuff But I did come home with:

• two free t-shirts
• 10 gaming/PC magazines
• 6 game posters
• playstation3 and nintendo Wii lanyards
• a “powered by the UK” pin badge
• a couple of kanagaroo badges
• a squeezy minature basketball

I missed out on the big ticket item – Paris Hilton was at the show Thursday and her entourage were giving out pairs of panties in celebration. A few people here got them, and I think I’ll resist and comment about them.

I can’t believe people are selling their swag on ebay. That advertising packet from Square Enix is apparantly “RARE and EXCLUSIVE”, same with the Playstation 3 lanyard. Some of this stuff is selling for anywhere from 99c to $2.50!! Who knew I could get rich from going to a game show.