CAREBEAR LUVVA

Saw The Hives again last night, for the second time in a fortnight (fifth time overall). It was a last-minute show that sold out in less than a minute, which meant the crowd was made up of hardcore fans who knew all the songs and were all happy to be there (it was one of the most good-natured crowds I've ever been in), and being in such a small venue (the 900-capacity Leadmill in Sheffield) made everything feel so much more intense. I love how the band has been around for 30-something years but they still all seem like a bunch of lads just enjoying themselves and having a laugh - there's no pretentiousness, they all seem like they'd be perfectly affable if you bumped into them in the street, yet all together they make some of the finest and most entertaining punky rock n' roll imaginable. They really are an absolute treasure.

Just got back from seeing The Hives on the first night of their current tour after a four-month break. I was expecting pretty much the same 15-song setlist that they've been doing for the last year or so, but they've added about half a dozen extra songs from their back catalogue. We got a few songs that haven't been played for 6 or 7 years, and one from the latest album that's never been played live before. It was strange to look at the crowd and realise that I first saw The Hives in about 2001 when I was a youngster, and now 20-odd years later there's loads of kids the same age as I was back then going mental to those same songs which are still being performed with as much energy and enthusiasm as they were back then. Absolute joy, ridiculously good fun, a truly ten out of ten evening.

Hang about, did you start a new game just to try a different class? Just go to the vocation guilds, you can change class there whenever you want... Last night I did loads of exploring and found a semi-secret area with a fairly long-winded questline that was split into five parts. I did the first three bits, then the fourth asked me to go back to the exact spot where I picked up my first seeker's token. Absolutely no idea where that was, and the only way to find out seems to be to check an online map of where all the tokens are and go around all of the ones that are in areas that I've already visited. I'm guessing I probably picked one up in the opening areas, but who knows. It feels like far too much hassle to bother with, so I'll just let the quest expire (I think it said you get six in-game days to do it). Complete nonsense.

The lack of lock-on is absolutely infuriating. Equally annoying, I can't seem to find a way of setting hotkeys for inventory items. If I'm halfway through a battle with a big fuck off ogre, I want to be able to just press a button to use a stamina potion or a fire spell or whatever, not fanny around in my inventory and scroll through everything to find whatever it is that I want to use. Also, I wish the pawns would shut the fuck up.