I cannot stop listening to this Editors record. In my opinion they've surged past Interpol as the post-punk leaders of the 21st century. See my entire review (and in depth Joy Division comparative analysis) here.

blood runs through your veins
that's where our similarity ends

I played more of FIFA 06 last night. I honestly don't know how much more time i'm going to give this game, because i find it seriously lacking when stood up against Winning Eleven. One thing that's absolutely terrible is how the motion-capture animations interrupt gameplay. For example, if you take a shot on goal and the opposing keeper manages to get a hand on it, there's several things that can happen ... he catches it, he deflects it either out of bounds or back into play, or he bobbles it near him. When the latter occurs, the game kicks into autopilot to show the keeper dropping the ball then leaping on top of it. While this is happening, you lose control of your attackers and they all automatically begin running away from goal. Even when the ball is lying in open play after the keeper spilled it. I was ready to beat the TV last night when the game forced Hernan Crespo away from goal while the keeper was struggling to smother a loose ball that was two feet away from my striker. This is totally ridiculous in my opinion. The game is slick visually, no doubt, but it's all for naught when some of that eye candy is obtained at the cost of realistic gameplay. My conclusion is that the game takes waaaaaaaay too much control of your players. For example, when your opponent crosses the ball into your penalty area, you are automatically given control of the nearest defender, but all too often i find you are prevented from getting in the prime position by some kind of mysterious force field. Or when i actually have the foresight to identify where the ball will be played, i first have to switch to the right defender (a challenge in and of itself) and then try to break down the same force field. Why? Who freakin' knows ... maybe this was EA's solution to make the game more challenging. Lame. My frustrations with the available formations continue ... my forays with Chelsea have been seriously damaged by the fact that there is no formation that makes proper use of both Makelele and Lampard. Last night, playing the default 4-3-2-1 lineup, Makelele was infinitely more present in the attack than Lampard. No freakin' way. And it's totally bogus that a defensive midfielder with a role as defined as Makelele pops up in the penalty area during set pieces. Little things yes, but WE doesn't have these same problems so Konami has obviously figured something out that EA has either knowingly or unknowingly ignored.