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	<title>Constantly Abbreviated.com</title>
	<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home</link>
	<description>The (hopefully) frequently updated blog of Mike Carter</description>
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		<title>Review: The Legend of Zelda &#8211; Spirit Tracks</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s hard to start a review about a Zelda game without reflecting on the franchise&#8217;s legacy. A staple of the gaming scene since the NES days, while gaming has evolved Zelda has stayed largely the same. Graphics and controls have evolved, but Zelda&#8217;s core elements of classic action/adventure gameplay, intricate dungeon design and beautiful story-telling remain.
Spirit Tracks is the fifteenth official Zelda title and the second to be released on the Nintendo DS. As is now tradition, we have a hero, a princess and a world in peril. This time ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/12/review-the-legend-of-zelda-spirit-tracks/</link>
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		<title>Scrubs: Season nine premiere</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Sacred Heart. Eight years of great memories. This place will live forever&#8230;&#8221;
Zach Braff opens the ninth season of Scrubs with a not-too-subtle metaphor, as a picture of the Sacred Heart Hospital we knew is trashed and the new building is clear for all to see.
In May, Scrubs was given that rarest of things for television: A fitting conclusion. With the characters and stories still bringing a smile to the faces of fans, seeing JD leave Sacred Heart for the last time was bittersweet, but it somehow felt right.
Though many would ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/12/scrubs-season-nine-premiere/</link>
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		<title>Review: Disney&#8217;s A Christmas Carol</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s Christmas time and, as Bob Geldof and his Band Aid cronies would have you believe, there&#8217;s no need to be afraid. When it comes to going to the cinema this festive season at least, they may be right. Holiday movies straight out of Hollywood, desperately trying to prove themselves the next National Lampoon&#8217;s Christmas Vacation are nowhere to be seen. Instead, we&#8217;re being treated to modern spins on far more traditional tales.
Brit comedy Nativity! is out this week, but Robert Zemeckis&#8217; A Christmas Carol has been out for almost ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/review-disneys-a-christmas-carol/</link>
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		<title>Review: Wii Music</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Since the Wii&#8217;s release, Nintendo have sought to draw in a broader audience with a variety of games sporting the console&#8217;s name in the title. Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit are the three biggest sellers on the platform outselling established Nintendo heroes Mario and Link by several million.
Just over a year ago, they released another game in the Wii [Blank] arsenal with Wii Music. From a simple conductor&#8217;s demo at E3 2005, the project had grown into a product which featured more than 50 songs and 60 instruments ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/review-wii-music/</link>
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		<title>Brazil 1-0 England: Match Report</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve gone a little mad this week and decided to scrawl together a match report based on the England match last night. Scribbled together with pen and paper last night, I&#8217;ve just finished typing it up. I&#8217;m hoping it&#8217;s not bad for a first attempt&#8230;
A second-half header by Nilmar saw an unfamiliar England line-up lose their friendly against Brazil 1-0 in the Qatari heat.
With an injury list which had been growing right up to the last minute with Michael Carrick picking up an ankle injury, Capello&#8217;s starting eleven of second ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/brazil-1-0-england-match-report/</link>
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		<title>Spirit Tracks brings Spirit Pipes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The latest addition to the Legend of Zelda series, Spirit Tracks, is almost a month away and though Nintendo had kept most of the game&#8217;s secrets under wraps since the playable demo at E3, the news has been coming thick and fast over the last couple of days.
A new trailer last week revealed a whole host of secrets including the origins of the mysterious Phantoms that would help Link on his quest, why our usually green-garbed hero is sporting that natty little train driver&#8217;s outfit and, most importantly, the villain ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/spirit-tracks-brings-spirit-pipes/</link>
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		<title>Review: Saw VI</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s as traditional as buckets full of sweets, hastily-put-together costumes and badly carved pumpkins: another Halloween, another entry into the Saw franchise.
Though it took the title of the most successful horror franchise with its fifth entry last year, there&#8217;s no denying that fans were left disappointed by a generally sloppy production. The ingenuity of the traps had disappeared, John Kramer had died two movies back and taken most of the answers to the franchise&#8217;s questions with him and the normally brilliant Julie Benz was handed a script which had been ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/review-saw-vi/</link>
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		<title>Review: Bowser&#8217;s Inside Story</title>
		<description><![CDATA[To say that Mario is pretty versatile for a plumber would be an understatement. Over his two decades of stomping Goombas, ripping Koopas from their shells and bitch-slapping Bowser, the moustachioed maestro has found time for karting, tennis, golf and football (that&#8217;s proper football where you use your feet to connect with the ball 90 per cent of the time, my American friends).
But being a hero is what he does best, and alongside consistently impressive platformers Mario has a catalogue of equally entertaining RPGs. After the Square-developed Super Mario RPG ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/11/review-bowsers-inside-story/</link>
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		<title>Nintendo announce FOURTH DS incarnation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Only a few days ago I addressed the success which Nintendo had been having with their dual-screened handheld in recent years. The system has attracted a lot of people to the gaming who wouldn&#8217;t have touched it with a twelve-foot pole several years ago, never mind a three inch stylus.
Well, the times they are a-changing, and the DS has sold over 100 million units in it&#8217;s short life, with three different forms. Now, there&#8217;s a new one which goes against the previous two reinventions where everything was physically scaled back ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/10/nintendo-announce-fourth-ds-incarnation/</link>
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		<title>Review: Michael Jackson&#8217;s This Is It</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When Michael Jackson died, as with all pop stars of his kind, musical experts and personalities who had been starved of attention for a while (yes, Uri, I mean you) were rolling out the hyperbolic tributes to the King of Pop. He was a born entertainer. He touched millions. He left a legacy that would last generations.
I had a problem with all of these tributes. It&#8217;s not that they weren&#8217;t true. The problem I had was that I&#8217;d been using the past tense to describe Michael Jackson, the artist, for ...]]></description>
		<link>http://constantly-abbreviated.com/home/2009/10/review-michael-jacksons-this-is-it/</link>
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