I guess this is loosely game related, as all children's fantasy movies invariably provoke a slew of tie ins, so I'm going to talk briefly about The Golden Compass.

If you have read the book (Northern Lights for us Brits), do NOT see this film. Seriously, you'll be doing yourself a favour if you just wait until the DVD.

My wife and I went into the cinema expecting a fairly decent adaptation of a book that's been a personal favourite of ours for years. What we got was a rushed, choppy, bastardised mess instead. And don't get me started about the ending.

When I heard that it was being turned into a film last year, I was sceptical to say the least, particularly with an American film company handling distribution. Now, before people start jumping down my throat, I'm going to qualify this by saying that the Dark Materials sequence is not exactly...complimentary about religion, and with Harry Potter serving as a precedent for what angry religious fundamentalists could do, I was worried that the content would be...sanitised a fair amount.

Oddly, it wasn't. New Line did seem to keep a lot of the Magisterium's evilness intact, albeit less in the way of religion being evil.

***SPOILERS*

No, what ruined the film was the ending. I'm going to say it: it was a cop out. In a film that had a fair amount of violence, whoever decided that the best way to end a dark film would be a cliched 'flying into the sunset' trope needs to be shot. Into the sun. Naked.

***END SPOILERS***

After this, I really don't hold out hope for The Subtle Knife

So, I could be relaxing in bed on a day off from training. But instead, here I am, wondering about trade ins and how long people hold onto games after they've been completed. I have games that I've completed, say, a year ago that I still have, and yet I've traded games that I completed within a week of their purchase.

How does everyone else decide to trade in a game, rather than keeping it?

I have a dilemma.

1: I start my new job tomorrow.
2: Mass Effect (for which I have a preorder) is out tomorrow.

Help!

So, at the behest of a gaming deity, I present to you the obligatory introductory blog post. As the profile failed to really say, I'm Bill, 24, from the UK, and the reason I discovered Destructoid was through a chance encounter with atheistium as she was on her way to PAX this summer. Rather, I should elaborate. I worked for a fairly well known bookstore (no, not that one), she bought a book (Halo novel, if I recall), I squeed about the impending release of Halo 3, she gave me the address for the site, and the rest, as many people say, is written by the victor.

So, that being the "how I met your gaming site" bit, onto my personal quirks. I own a 360, but feel the PS3 could be amazing, provided the games are available, I think the Wii needs someone to kick the collective arses of party-game developers already, and I'm a sucker for a well-written story.

Oh, and I have a weird habit where my brain sometimes feels compelled to follow things through to a natural (in my mind) if illogical conclusion.

So, there you have it. Me, in a not entirely informative way.