SomTervo

True on the early review thing. Although I'd argue that the game is obviously pretty complete, judging by what people said from the preview code and how much the release delay will have helped; and that the hardest audience to win over is the PC-using original-Deus Ex-loving fanbase, who are probably who the devs want to gain trust from the most. That may be another reason they gave PCGUK an early review. Because they can; and because they need that fanbase. In general, though, you're probably right.

That whole "do this, then this, then this" thing is what's starting to put me off Rockstar games in general recently (R* obviously didn't develop L.A. Noire, but Rockstar also obviously had a huge influence on the game's design). L.A. Noire is the only game since GTAIII where I've felt it actually worked, though. Seeing as, really, L.A. Noire is not an open world game. There's a big level, but you really have no freedom in what you're doing. I just try to forget there's even a whole city there when I'm playing it, until I happen to look at the map and go "whoa, this is big". L.A. Noire is basically just a very large interactive story. So going from A to B repeatedly felt okay, as you were doing it to discover the story rather than for actual "winning the game". In GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, all I felt like I was doing after a while was dealing with dots on the minimap. GTAIV: Go to the letter on the map, drive to the yellow dot location, neutralise the enemy-dots on the radar. While the simulation on top of it was amazing and often pretty fun, that's really all you were doing. In GTAIII, Vice City, and (slightly less so) San Andreas, the games had a far more arcadey approach to the gameplay side of things, so going from dot to dot was done quickly and gave some satisfaction, as it made this alone feel like "winning the game". In GTAIV when you get a mission and drive to a place, which takes a lot of time and often awkwardness, you're usually greeted with a cutscene that is slow and makes you wait even more. I feel the pace in these games is a bit off. At least in L.A. Noire Team Bondi went for such a stylised look and feel, and such a developed sense of story and character, that the dot-to-dot gameplay felt okay, to me at least.

Tiny Tim is win. That video is win.

Exactly. Halo's gameplay never changes, they simply alter the abilities and options on a fairly superficial level. I really wish they'd mix it up a bit, but they won't. What I really dislike about Halo is how completely non-tactile it is. Movement is so dull and smooth, nothing seems to have any kickback. All it's pacing is weird, you move and jump ridiculously slowly yet stuff happens to enemies really quickly. I don't think any of it adds up to a satisfying experience to play. Actually, Combat Evolved did feel satisfying, the pace seemed really on-the-ball in that one, but I haven't felt that since then.

I'm actually kind of interested in Halo 4. Moreso than 2-Reach, at least. I think the idea of forwarding Master Chief's adventure, but being outwith the limiting original trilogy story arc is appealing. It'll be interesting to see what they add to the gameplay. I can't imagine that grenade launcher thing in the trailer will be a particularly significant addition.

I'm going to leave the Penguin's trailer I think. After watching that 'huge gameplay blowout' and the Riddler stuff, and some pretty enlightening interviews with devs, I think I've had my share of info and I'm going to wait for the full game. A small touch that I'm really liking is how they've actually un-cartoon'd a lot of the little touches. The whole interface seems much cleaner now. And, more importantly, when Batman slams thugs, there's no longer a bizarre reality-warp where the collision took place and a cartoony 'crack'. Now there's just a puff of dust and a dull thud (unless he's breaking bones).

(Sorry to totally revive older discussions on here, but) On Roundabouts: Thursday Next, (as well as agreeing wholeheartedly on your application of tea/hot water/milk), the moment I saw that Magic Roundabout, I actually started getting anxious. Just sitting here at my computer, I started bricking it at the mere idea of driving on that beast. I actually like roundabouts- and I'm talking about the small British ones here. Always surprisingly smooth, and only at (the highest of) peak times is there ever any congestion. At least in Scotland. Also our cities aren't too large, and the only large one (Glasgow) is mostly in a warped grid formation. Also, Battra, I still play that acoustic intro to Roundabout most times I pick up my guitar. Haven't listened to it in years! I think Yes are one of the most contrived and uncool bands ever- but damn don't I love them from time to time. I can also play all of Mood for a Day from Fragile, too. Generally on-topic: As you said, WTF, everyone ends up wrong with this constantly-innovating language junk. At the same time, we're all right. Every circle of friends, family, colleagues, houses, towns, cities, nations, races, genders- I could go on, all have their own interlocking and overlapping lexicon and pronunciations and schema for what's "right" and "wrong". I think, really, the only way to judge anything linguistic is by whether you can understand it or not. If you can't understand someone, it can be for a variety of reasons- someone from a slum of Merseyside may not understand a Texan to such a degree that they don't even accept that both are speaking the same language, due to different words and grammar and intonation; whereas someone from the Hebrides of Scotland may say exactly the same words as a Southern Englisher, and not understand simply because they pronounce the words in such a radically different way. And I believe not being able to understand someone is the only reason to remotely consider someone's personal language "wrong". And it's not even "wrong", you just can't understand it. The reason I say this is that I detest judgement based on someone's accent. It's almost impossible not to do due to our society and upbringing, but I still think it is wholly wrong. See "My Fair Lady". The whole issue is so wonderfully yet horrifically complex and variable. So that's just me being totally bummed about the concept of studying English Language. Cultural junk like this petrol/ tea container malarkey seems much more interesting.

IGN fucking loved it. Their arguments sounded quite good, too. They basically said "if it's too hard for you, you aren't going to get into it, but if you rise to the challenge with dedication, you're going to have a great experience". Was one of the better IGN reviews I've read. Seeing as I've never actually read a good one, that was a position easily won.

RX Bandits seem good. I remember listening to some Ween years ago and thinking it was brilliant, but never finding which albums/records were worth getting into. I like Foo Fighters- I find their albums more "easy listening rock" with odd amazing tunes. I love Rope- except for the weirdo lame reverb'd intro. I also saw LTJ back in 2006. That was totally sweet. The Naked and Famous are alright. MGMT with more integrity, imho. Which isn't hard, seeing as MGMT have literally 0 integrity. (Imho.) @Starr: I'm totally into The Residents now. Thanks. Currently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXenEK0h6qg Sheer skill. In every respect.

Yeah, I thought that. I think he's just too cocky personality-wise (I've never seen him not be in acting). Drake's not full-on cocky, he just acts it to take the piss out of his enemies. I know who WOULD be a perfect Nathan Drake. I can't say how good an actor he is as he has only been in one thing ever, but he looks exactly like the man: http://www.daemonstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/ot5_nathan_066r-60652523-t3.jpg I'm pretty sure he's even called Nate in the show. Man. @Slag- I think they're tried to make it smoother in 3, but the animation has just come off as being too complicated so it doesn't seem as smooth or pure. Too many movements and weird angles. I feel that loss in UC3 the most- the purity. There's almost too much ornamenting in the movements and gameplay; UC2 felt so formulaic and perfect. I think I said that above.

This is topical- I just borrowed Obliv off a friend after devouring 3 large fantasy books over the course of two weeks (Demon Cycle: The Painted Man and the Desert Spear, and A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords, Book 2: Blood and Gold). I'm currently enjoying waiting until it is midnight, then creeping around town and breaking into every single locked door in the city just to power level my Security skill, before finally breaking into the Mages Guild and just creeping back and forth in someones room while staring at them asleep, in order to power level my Sneak skill. Oh, the lulz we had.

No worries. There was a video on the pretty nifty Uncharted TV thing but it's not that well signposted.

I've had no issues with the hit detection Slag. I've been killin n chillin the whole time, with no issues. The movement system seems pretty changed- a slower pace like the first Uncharted. Personally I loved how crisp and precise UC2 was; it made it feel formulaic but still great fun. This pace change is a bit funky, but once past it, it seems pretty great. I haven't encountered any bugs except for a fairly major crash bug. If I pop back to the MP menu (with the sideway tabs) from the Customisation menu, and switch sideways too quickly, the game crashes on me. Every time. Infuriating if you're in a matchmaking list with a party of friends. I think the treasure and medal stuff is great, though they don't explain it that well. Basically, the medals you collect in-game (like from stealth kills, grenade kills, headshots, etc.) can be 'spent' in-game to buy Medal Kickback boosters. I have the Speed one chosen, so if I rack up 6 medals in a deathmatch, I can press Up on the D-Pad and temporarily get a pretty great speed boost. They only last for the game, and you have to buy them at the Customisation menu to be able to use them. On Treasures- for each single treasure you pick up (random drops from bodies like TF2 or found in the randomly highlighted treasure chests) you unlock an Emblem logo for customisation- and if you complete sets of the treasures (usually 2-3 of them) you unlock more clothing options for your chosen avatar. Chances are most of you know that already, but some peeps expressed confusion.

You can also add me at GMT +0. Typical: I fire the game up for the first time, realise how goddamn great it is, then come on here and find out y'all were online not 6 hours ago on it D=

Well, yeah. And the rest of the film was about a guy who can absorb kinetic energy, an insanely powerful psychic/telepath, and a dude who can control metal. Not to mention other realistic classics like the guy who can 'evolve' at will and temporarily. I think "generals being manipulated" is on the more believable side of the scale (even if it was told in an oversimplified manner, no doubt to avoid political boredom).

Shoddy gameplay? Uncharted 1 was, indeed, a bit bland, but in UC2 I've replayed many sections of the game purely for how fucking great the gameplay is. The combat system, enemy AI, and level design are almost unmatched imho. The blending of fisticuffs, gunfights, stealth, and climbing all roll into one amazing action-movie system that makes navigating and defeating any area like a breath of fresh air. To me, at least. If you're going to argue that it's "too easy" or some shit, try it on Crushing. It's pretty close to RL as to how many hits you can take, and how goddamn deadly most of the enemies are. It's never frustrating, either, fighting your way through the levels on Crushing. (You seem to note non-playable scenes, are you referring to cutscenes? I've looked through the cinematics list in UC2- and no single cutscene goes over 5 mins. Compare that to any JRPG. If you're talking about in-game scripted sequences- the aim of the game is to blend these with more open and traditional gameplay segments. And it works beautifully, it's not overabalanced in terms of scripted scenes vs. unscripted gameplay.) ... And on-Topic, I really need to play this and Xenogears. Got Vagrant Story on a whim a while back and it blew my tiny mind for the short period of time in which I played it. I really like FFVII and VIII but never got into the ones after that (though, if I recall, 2 + 3 seemed pretty great when I watched a friend play them.) One day I'll catch up on all this seminal JRPG shit. One day...

I generally agree with this- though I nitpicked on totally different things. I thought the editing was really choppy, the jumping back and forth between different locations (and sometimes time periods) was far too jarring if you're paying close attention. Also, the music generally sucked. Really generic Hollywood schlock- specifically in a couple of scenes I actually felt the whole scene was ruined by shitty, cheesy music. However, I felt the acting, story, and characters really pulled it off. It also was brilliant how this wasn't an "action" movie; whenever action is taking place, it's to tell you about a character or the politics of the situation. There was never action for action's sake. Overall, I felt a tiny, teeny bit "meh" about it (I felt it was too 'lite'), but overall I really enjoyed it. Nowhere near as good as 1 or 2, they were overall much more classy and polished, though still just pulpy enough. I'm not even giving X3 and Wolverine a mention. Woops, I did.

Beta? PC-only I'm guessing?

Yeah. I think that was in the Eurogamer preview I OP'd: apparently they repeatedly shout the same thing once every few seconds or so for minutes at a time, and worse, the words come up in a little embedded box at the side of the screen, so there's a massive list of the same phrase over and over. Doesn't sound like something that'd be particularly difficult to fix in the next year or so though Also, nice post. That video was sexy. Looks fucking good.

Like open world L4D with RPGing. Take the quest system and RPGing of Oblivion/Fallout, plop it in visceral FPS combat with co-op like L4D and hand-to-hand combat like Condemned. Open world, too, indeed. Whole place available from the start. 4 player drop-in-drop-out co-op at any point. The RPG aspect is less pronounced, though, it's an action game primarily.

Heheh, I'd trust GT more as a video source anyway, Piran Also I can't wait to put my 'Ancient Carribean Gem of Slaughter' into my 'MLB Baseball Bat of Fortitude' No worries man. However, you aren't really a random woman, you're something like either a buff black guy, a female assassin who's good with blades, some businessman (or something), or some other chick. I can't even remember. The characters don't sound great, and aren't random at all, but are pretty stereotypical 'survivor'/ 'unusual badass' types. Indeed, though, it can be played 1, 2, 3, or 4 player from start to finish, apparently. All of it is in the same game experience. Which is very nice. Totes. I wish more games would make the most of this. Old school Resident Evil is so intense because it understood that so well.

D= I didn't see it. Once I've got my box set up again I'll double check and add you if there's no sign. Sometimes my Xbox does shitty things with NAT and connections, regardless of port-forwarding or DMZing, so it may have decided not to tell me you sent that. I've had issues with sending people requests and not getting anything back, and them saying they didn't get anything. On PSN a bunch of people I had good chats with haven't accepted me, and I'm suspicious. Not fucking bad!