SomTervo

That's a lovely pic dude. But seriously. Who's this sex machine:

I don't have many concrete achievements like 100% completion of games, etc. I tend to enjoy games a lot, but by the time I've nearly 100% the ones I really like, I get another game and put the other one down for good. Although once I was in the top 100 for Socom back when the PS2 online service first came out. That was cool, and damn was I good at it. Anyway, I got a great sense of achievement from a game of Uncharted 2 I had, way back just after it came out. Players had just started working out the cheap ways of fighting/winning- notably i) running straight at you in close quarters, with pistols, and shooting you repeatedly then dealing one punch kills (really quickly), ii) hiding just round corners and throwing grenades straight at your feet as you emerged, and iii) leading you to edge-drops, rolling off to hang below you, and pulling you off it for an insta kill, etc. It takes an experienced mind to evade all of these nowadays, but back then they used all the cheap tactics relentlessly and nobody knew quite how to get around them yet. I had this one game where the other team were basically 5 guys pulling this shit constantly. You couldnt walk anywhere without having an un-dodgeable grenade dropped instantly at your feet, or without taking a couple of bullets and being punched in the space of 2 seconds. Our team all had about 1 or 2 kills, most of them had at least 8 or 9, so they were nearly winning, at about 30 points out of 50 for the win. After about 5 minutes of constant cheap play from them, I got so pissed off. So pissed off. We couldnt do anything to fight them, especially with my inexperienced team. I have the game recorded- you can literally see me standing still for a moment whilst I rage. I had 3 kills and was clearly the best player on my team, but these guys were just playing dirty. Constantly. So my temper broke. I took every single dirty tactic and choke-point strategy they had and turned it against them. I went sprinting, got in close and pistol'ed them before a punch, I threw countless grenades straight onto people who were hiding or inside buildings, I even lured a guy to a broken window ledge, and pulled him out. Within a couple of minutes I had about 11 kills, and rising. It was like being in Metal Gear Solid 4 and getting that 'battle-rage' mode or whatever. I just started cracking out crazy moves. At one point I hid behind a low wall, and had two enemies coming at me. I grenaded, blind fired, ran forward, killed one, took cover, shot the other to death- before another two of their buddies spawned and came running- without stopping for breath I took cover, started firing; and within 1 minute of gameplay I killed their entire team, plus a surplus of the first two who had respawned. In the end we won. We had 50 points, and the enemy had about 40. I had 25 kills or so. For most games that might not sound too great, but in Uncharted it's pretty unheard of. That's the whole enemy team 5 times over. I've got the whole thing saved in the UC2 cinema, so I might pull a Smooves and upload a bunch of images from it to the Uncharted 2 thread. I felt like the fucking governator after giving those assholes a taste of their own medicine.

Yeah, that's why I suggested GTAIV. It's just such a great open-world simulation, and apparently is pretty moddable, so it seemed feasible in this instance. The only problem is that we'd all have to get hold of GTAIV, and a good enough computer... I agree, and I don't think there's much need for background or anything, I'd be happy with a mini-game GTAIV mod that just said 'You're starting here. You have to get here (somewhere across the city). Get there, and survive!' With randomized instances of; the insane cars in that Carmaggedon video, violent and psychotic civilians (without overpowered weaponry), randomly exploding stuff, groups of NPCs fighting each other dynamically (always brilliant) etc. etc. But hey, backstory would be nice if we could manage it in whatever endeavour we choose. The Great Ones seems a bit too specific though? They've got a very background, passive influence (until they start properly tearing shit apart after indoctrinating everyone). People cult-up, they don't go openly insane. Sorry if we seem to be grabbing your idea and running with it, Rocky!

The show's great because it does it's own thing and makes the story it's own- unique, and interesting. It builds on the initial setting and characters of the comics. X-men first class looks decent. I actually think Cap Am looks decent too, but I really don't care about Thor, have no interest in the character or the film.

None of us would ever have a chance to make these ideas come true- but a GTAIV mod made by us is feasable? All these ideas remind me of the seminal cheats in GTAIII that made civilians go crazy. It made just walking through the world trying to survive amazing. Good stuff!

(Don't care much for the band but I adore the pic) All I can think of for now. EDIT: Just remembered;

Classic... Peer pressure stalking/ wooing.

I wrote a massive explanation of how I write and shit. And my flatmate's laptop's wireless conked out. All gone. Fuck. To the best of my memory it went like this: I find drinking helps writing in the moment, but as a story/actual writing tool it's pretty useless. For words it's good, for story and characters and themes etc it ain't. I usually write into a text draft on my phone whenever something comes to me at a party. My actual writing process is: 1. Come up with an idea for the piece overall. It could be a character idea, an overall story/plot idea, an idea for a universe to set a story/character(s) in, or even just a theme to write something around. 2. Define the character skeletons, and the plot skeletons. So I have an idea of what the chars will be like when I finish them, and how they will fit into the story start-to-finish. As usual try to make the story interesting or unique somehow. 3.50-60% of my writing time is coming up with themes and how they fit into the story and characters. I find making themes and developing them over the course of the narrative will help come up with turns of phrase like metaphors, images, as well influencing the actual story itself- developing a character to fit a theme may change them drastically for the better, and the plot may change to reflect the theme also. Themes are what make a piece of fiction more readable, rereadable and awesome. 4. Make sure it all fits together, then write the actual narrative. Usually I write the text bit by bit, rewriting and drafting as I go, and in no chronological order, to keep it as interesting as possible. So sometimes i'll write the very end, or just a turning point, or some dialogue for a character that's interesting whilst it's in my head, etc etc. 5. Do all the fluffy stuff that you do when you finish a piece of fiction- usually deciding that your work is complete and utter shit and you never want to show it to anyone. But showing it to people is important!

Also, and I didn't realise this until I opened the box of the 360 version, but the PS3 version (I'm assuming) is on one disc. The 360 version is on two. Considering the game itself will be identical in every other way, and we get more content with the PS3 version, the PS3 version looks like the best, tbh. Regretting my 360 purchase a bit, though I prefer my Xbox anyway.

That's great, I did that a year or two ago with a PS2, for a friend who would actually appreciate it if he had the chance. I love Dreamcast. I'm pretty sure the laser reader in my one is busted now, though =( I'm constantly wanting to replay Shenmue 1 & 2, and Jet Set Radio. JSR is still one of my favourite games of all time, for it's artistic direction as much as it's funs. Amazing stuff, one of the best soundtracks around too. Crazy Taxi was alright, but I felt super overrated.

Christing fuck

Just like you. Only better. And... who needs overpriced dlc? Don't rise to it, son!

That can't be real. Lmfao. It can't! What a game. Not only is it the scariest thing I've ever played- but it's also one of the most clever in it's narrative design and story. If you actually immerse yourself in the game world as they tell you to at the beginning, the story becomes surprisingly addictive and compelling; countered by sheer evil terror. EDIT: On that picture- isn't the THQ logo at the bottom right totally not the real THQ logo? Fake?

I actually find the opposite. Everyone I've met calls me weird but I find 50-60 FPS really jarring sometimes, and find that 30FPS has a more real, gritty quality to it. It's like in cheap sci-fi movies or TV shows when they use a cheap digital camera, it looks unnaturally smooth and weird, but if you contrast the type of camera with something out of a gritty war movie, like say Saving Private Ryan, during the war scenes the slightly slower framerate and shaky-cam makes it much more intense. I like high-quality simulation games to be a steady 30FPS. When I put v-sync on Skate 2 and made it lock to 30 I found the game much more enjoyable, it's usually around 50 or so w/o. Just opinion for me. However, I do find that PC games can have infuriatingly temperamental FPSes, so I generally like PC games to be at the higher end of the spectrum. On console I don't care as long as it's consistent and above our eyes speed. I had no problems with Dead Space 2 whatsoever.

Sexy. B-but kinda twisted at the same time. And scary. Probably will make me want to end my life before society destroys it anyway. ... I'm not seeing it, man. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.

The cohesive feeling of the story gets better as it goes on. I think the first part of the game is just generally Isaac being all like "whaaaaa" and trying to get an angle on the whole situation. Others have made the dark comment before, but honestly I remember the first game being just as dark, if not darker than 2. There are moments in 2 where it goes pitch black, but there's only a handful, and they fit the tension and release of the game perfectly. There are also moments where it is brighter than any part of 1 was. Maybe adjust the brightness in the game's menu? In terms of weaponry- here's the golden rule as far as I'm concerned: pick 2-3 weapons you like the feel of/ understand how to use effectively, and stick to them. Never have 4 weapons in your equip slots, as ammo will be harder to come by for all of them. With 2 or 3, you'll get a lot more ammo and have an easier time getting to grips with them/ upgrading them. I spent the entire game never leaving the Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle, and Javelin gun out of my equip slots. I imagine you can do the whole game with the Plasma Cutter equipped alone, just like in DS1, but Plasma Cutter and something else would probably be your best bet. Also, Stasis is a godsend later on. Seriously look into it, it saved my life countless times, especially in the last chapters!

Know what I like the least about the new sites? I'm coming to Kotaku, but it doesn't look like Kotaku. Where's that iconic Red/Yellow colour scheme? Save some red words and the yellow 'Kotaku' design, it's all white n shit. Psychologically, it's actually making me uninterested in reading the articles they post on there.

Vice City was my least favourite. It felt like I was playing GTAIII whilst having a really, really bad acid trip, and trying to wrestle around gameplay that was getting too ambitious with an interface that was just as clunky as III. My favourite GTA game? GTAIII. After playing IV, I went back and played III- and it honestly is just as fun today as it was back then. It's like, perfectly formulaic fun. Everything about it is fun, not trying to be too big or ambitious or deep, it's just a great laugh to play. Even going back through the missions was great, and it's got one of the best atmospheres out of all of the GTA games. My favourite GTA cinematic experience/ games as art thing? GTAIV. I quite enjoyed GTAIV on my first playthrough, but not massively. The story was good overall, and the moment-to-moment writing was brilliant. But as a game, I didn't find it very fun. However, recently I went back to play it- and turned the HUD off, most of the music off, the auto-aim off, and set the camera to over-the-shoulder (the closest option). That honestly changed the game. It goes from being half arcadey-GTA and half serious crime movie, to being ALL serious crime movie, and surprisingly engrossing. Especially when you have to use the map to find your way around, and actually take in the city's sights. Even the combat felt more intense when you don't have any HUD to help you and you feel like you're right IN the fight. Good stuff. My favourite GTA experience, overall? GTA: San Andreas. The fun formulaic gameplay of GTAIII, taken to an ambitious and huge extreme. A massive, incredible world to explore- easily the best designed world of all GTA games; a gentle RPG-ing system that makes it actually fun to do the menial tasks the games sometimes make you do; one of the most compelling stories, the epic nature of CJ's plight, and all the characters he meets who weave in and out of the plot; and all the generally awesome shit like climbing, flying planes, base jumping/ parachuting, HGV driving cross-country, proper in-depth swimming. Amazing. It gets that quality that Metal Gear Solid games usually have- years on you can come back to it, and still find some element of the game you didn't even know existed (it wasn't till 3 years after I bought the game that I found out you could steal trains!). Plus refining the controls a fair bit with free-aiming and junk. Things to fix in the series? Combat. That's the main thing imho. A regenerating health system is actually a benefit in a game like this (RDR proved it)- in that the relentlessly dangerous nature of the game's simulation means the player has to be able to survive mad accidents that could take place at any time, as well as the hard-to-read/survive combat itself. Also the cover system in GTAIV (and RDR) is totally useless. I'm still waiting for a free-flowing coversystem; one where the player holds a button, and the character automatically hides, but isn't 'stuck' to any surface. So, instead of Nico sticking to a car, still getting shot, and not being able to maneouvre out of the way- the player holds a button, Nico crouches as low as he needs to, and the player can still move him back and forth, side to side, while he procedurally hides behind it. Just like a crouch button but for cover/blindfiring purposes. That would fix GTA's combat imho. Would smooth it out. TL;DR: GTA:SA is the best entry, imho, for it's fun as a game and it's ambitious nature, but for the next GTA game they have to fix the combat, every iteration of the series has had serious problems with it.

Yahtzee was totally right on the horror thing. Save a couple of bits later on, Dead Space 2 really throws too many monsters at you. To make a great horror game it's got to be 90% anticipation. The combat, however, is so funs that I don't mind seeing monsters that much, and sometimes they would still get to me anyway. Yahtzee's limb-cutting being too easy argument is bullshit- humans haven't gotten any more sturdy in the future and in the game you're using future-rock cutting equipment for the most part, it's no wonder flesh will fall apart that much under the punishment. Also Isaac's got grav-boots. When he stomps, the force of that stomp is gonna be damn strong. Enough to tear limbs, I say!

You're getting added for that name alone. I got Paul Bunyan's Disease and need curing, yo.

Just finished Dead Space 2. It's 0600, GMT. I haven't slept. I have a 1000 word essay to write and submit in 30 hours. Not to mention a 400 page novel to read for 48 hours. Oh yeah. What a fucking game though. What'd peeps think of that ending?

Didn't notice you saying this- but I've thought at least 3 times over the last couple of weeks "I have to goddamn tell Dean how to say "have" or "'ve" properly." Good call, you Hot fiend! Well, hellooooo there. Who's the pretty lady? Haha, girlfriend's best friend, pretty sure she removed that one from Facebook. She would probably literally kill me if she knew I regurgitated it online somewhere =D

Hell yeah! My Dad and I listened to this on a drive up to the Highlands at Christmas. Listened to a whole LP's worth of it. Great. Also, you might have missed me saying so, but you also deserve some Ink Spots respect. These guys' my personal favourite: EDIT: Me and a friend have a pact. If hellogoodbye ever, EVER play live and we're in the vicinity, we shall both go, and be at the front row, despite all the kiddies. It'll be awesome. Shut up naysayers.

Snap! You better tell them that! It just takes you to the normal version of the site does it? I prefer it that way, but I imagine a lot of people will like mobile versions.

I haven't posted on here yet because that's the sensation I get goddamn constantly.