SomTervo

I'd add that the casual market for the DS is so massive that the 3DS will remain appealing and familiar, while the differences in the NGP are (almost) all under the hood, so the casual market will probably stay with what it knows and trusts already.

I totally agree with this. The Dark Knight was really good as a crime film, but still not great (imho), whereas Batman Begins is the only Batman movie I've seen that captured what Batman was all about. He makes bad guys think he's supernatural, and preys on their fears. Dark Knight was totally grounded in reality and lost all of that magic, though it is still great, mostly for the Joker. I quite liked Remember Me. The ending completely caught me off guard. A lot of people, especially cirtics, hated it. I think that was mostly because it seems very directionless, it's not edited that well, and it's generally pretty floaty in a dramatic sense- though all the acting is still great. The best actor in it by far, though, is... Robert Pattinson. He's actually great in it. I enjoyed that film a lot, but made sure I had no preconceptions about it before we watched it.

On the Uncharted game, someone confirmed it: It's not by Naughty Dog, and is not a remake of Drake's Fortune. It's a standalone Uncharted game. ND are obviously totally focused on Uncharted 3. I'll look around for confirmation anyway. Great call. That'll save an extremely significant amount of power. And the machine's bigger anyway. Yeah they said that games will come on flash memory, and savegames will be saved to the card, and it'll have extra capacity for downloadable content etc. Not to mention the device actually having it's own memory anyway, which will no doubt be a significant size, for downloading like on the PSPGo.

It's pretty great. Try the demo, which you will probably like, and if you like it, the full game will not disappoint. With 3 or more players it becomes so much more fun and insane.

Haha that was great! I think it's pretty close to the general feeling all the unStarry's get, too. CRYPTIC METAPHOR!

Oooh, that's an appropriate picture. Hardy could definitely fit that kind of physique and style. (And this is him obviously going for more fat-weight, rather than muscle-weight)

Yeah that is a pretty broken choice. Not to mention commandeering the top-of-the-bridge ultimatum in the first Raimi Spiderman movie to fit with Mary Jane, rather than Gwen Stacy.

Less useful, enlightening information. More jokes and photoshops. That too, bro. What I said was actually only my initial disheartening with the site.

That larger map with vehicles multiplayer sounds really great. I'm not enjoying the map in the MP demo. Not only is it small, it's not that well designed- there are choke points everyone goes to and combat just gets scrappy. The speed of the game would probably work better in a large map also. I'm really not feeling this game. If this was a single player demo, I would probably have been a lot more sold.

My most proud comment was when, in an expectedly vague and info-light post about L.A. Noire from Kotaku, everyone in the comments seemed totally confused about what the game actually was, or was like- so I made a massive bullet pointed comment explaining everything known about the game and why it looks interesting. I got an immediate promotion from a Starry. About 12 people commented basically saying "thanks for all the info, you're great". And at least 4 or 5 of those twelve were Starry's, a couple saying "someone give this guy some notice". What do I get? No star. I actually go on Kotaku less these days because I feel I've contributed so much, even directly to editors, but still I get no star recognition or even acknowledgement- because I haven't managed to slip a good comment into a spot where an editor will see it and be in a good enough mood to Star me? Give me a break. I must have honestly been promoted about 200 times over 3 years or so. Does that count for nothing? I don't really care anymore. Hahaha, well done. I like Crecente as a guy, but as a journalist? No way.

It's definitely dumbed down graphically (EDIT: Imho dumbed down applies to anything that has been downgraded or made worse, in any context). A bunch of the textures in the demo don't even look that great, and I'm 100% certain they would on the PC version, judging by video's I've seen of the same kinds of textures. The netcode doesn't seem great either. The whole thing is trying to be goddamn Modern Warfare, but it's more laggy and more frustrating overall, even though you can do a couple of cool things. It has problems the early CoD multiplayer had, too, like killcam's showing a completely different story to what happened on your own screen. The lag isn't super noticeable- and the framerate seems fine- but it is juuust noticeable enough to make getting solid hits on enemies difficult and to make a lot of gameplay really frustrating. It's fun, but I'm really not feeling it. I think if they slowed the pace (except if you're sprinting of course) of the game and made the maps larger it would be far more unique and enjoyable.

Daggerfall. Shit yeah. Still the biggest free-roaming gameworld to date. I'd add: Allegiance (open version called FreeAllegiance) http://www.freeallegiance.org/ -Hardcore space combat sim in the vein of Elite, Freelancer, Freespace, the X Series, etc. - it's multiplayer only. Two teams in space battle for objectives -Really good! Though I have barely played because of a tutorial bug which wouldn't let me learn how to fly and stuff properly. Pain in the ass..

True that on the combat strategy. I loved Dead Space for the knowledge and applied understanding you'd use in your environment to evade enemies and keep on top of them all, it's the best combat in any game like this I've played. I had one battle in the first game that honestly lasted about 5 minutes start to finish, constantly battling off enemies and tactically retreating when it got too hot- and the last blow to the last enemy was a punt to a creeper who had jumped onto me and started nibbling me- a punt straight into one of the faulty grav-panels. She exploded all over the room, and I felt goddamn badass Played Amnesia, HotChops? I just fucking freaked out from some of that shit, and I don't usually get too scared by horror games. Maybe I'll make a thread for it actually.

Yeah I can't wait for True Grit- also we saw Black Swan at an arthouse cinema! The place stank a bit of toilets (apparently they're getting refurbished), but still, I love that true-cinema quality you always get from seeing something at an local indie place.

But I haven't played ANY of the game, didn't know anyone would be there for anything like that to happen, and I've been trying hard not to watch any videos or read any articles on it (save looking at reviews to make sure it's good for a buy). It's not cool having a total 'fresh experience' blackout spoiled days before I'm going to play it.

See Requiem for a Dream? That leaves you feeling moved. In the worst possible way. Like moved to either hate society and tear it apart or kill yourself while you still have the chance. Black Swan was a really contained melting-pot of psychological damage and obsession, it was intense and scary and interesting, but yeah, not really moving (save the scene where she truly The only thing I didn't like about Black Swan was how relentless it was. I had that problem with Inception too; it's just constant scene-to-scene action, there's no breathing space at all, in a bad-editing kind of way rather than a story/plot kinda way. There are barely even scene-setting shots in Black Swan. But really this is a minor qualm, at lot of the time Aronofski made the transitions between scenes, locations, and themes really intelligently and interestingly.

Excuse me bro's. Serious spoilers there. I didn't want to know PLEASE SPOILER TAG. Good ninja skills Ethan. Danke.

I don't really see the need for a new Spiderman film, or the need for a reboot. Garfield, however, is, hands down, for fucking certain, the best choice for Spiderman. I've seen most of his films, and he is always different, always fully in-character, and never slips. Heard the story about the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and his audition for it? He sent Gilliam three seperate videos, of himself playing the character in three completely different ways. Like shy and uncertain, a show off and waveringly eccentric (the one in the film), and a loud and superficial good guy (something like these, I can't remember exactly). So not only did Gilliam know how variable Garfield is, he also got 3 different characters to choose from, that were all acted to perfection. Plus his performance in the Social Network was amazing. I just love the guy overall, and know for certain he'll make a great Spidey. He can be as geeky as the character is. He's so good in Parnassus that my girlfriend thought his character in the Social Network was a completely different actor. Hey, it wasn't the fans that made Raimi do that shit, I think you'll find it was insane pressure from Sony- who wanted to please as many fans as they could by squeezing Venom in there. Raimi didn't want to do it but Sony wouldn't let up shoving him around about it. So he just took the piss out of the whole thing and made 3 ridiculous, especially all the bits with 'venom peter'.

Hey guys I'm online right now also, as you've hopefully noticed, but I can't join until there's an appropriate party leader. Although, that business may have changed now. I hope. B-but... War never.... never changes

Anyone else seen it yet? I saw it last night with the gf. For about 5 years I've been totally immune to horror movies' effects- after seeing them I'm not worried about someone in the shower, my reflection, the dark, etc. But after Black Swan I was freaking out. Granted, it subsided quickly; but that's the first time since I was a mid-teenager that a film has managed to work its way under my skin. I thought it was a pretty amazing achievement of a movie. I love Requiem for a Dream also, and have been meaning to see the Wrestler.

I actually got Hydrophobia because I respected the guys so much for improving it. It's really pretty playable, and seems like a good adventure, though I'm only an hour or so in. The voice acting though... Is probably some of the worst I've ever heard. The main character seems to have a nothing accent, with a twinge of occasional ridiculous Irish, and your over-the-radio conductor is meant to be Scottish. Being Scottish, I find his accent bordering on offensive. The actual pronounciation is kiiind of okay, but he speaks as if, rather than having any other emotions, he is just constantly super-excited and passionate. Like between lines he's snorting coke and taking E's. It's horrible. Such a high pitched insane voice. Argh. Good game though, it seems.

True: I mostly meant that everybody I know who says they dislike the Beatles have only ever listened to their older stuff written while they were still touring. Their 'stationary' stuff, basically Revolver onwards, is best. (Damn, that's one hell of an album. Totes listening to it on the way to class, now.) Ever since I was a kid Abbey Road was the only one I knew so it was my favourite. Now, I just don't know. I've over-listened to Sgt Peppers, though I think it's one of their best achievements, Revolver still grabs my attention throughout, and the White Album is so goddamn ambitious and massive, but still quality and revolutionary. It's hard to pick one. Just now I'm discovering the simple poetry of the Magical Mystery Tour =D 'Hello Goodbye' through to the end with 'All You Need Is Love' is just incredible to behold. Damn straight! The song that managed to anachronistically create punk, and to a lesser extent metal, before the genres even existed! EDIT: ON-TOPIC: As the video description says: "The best band in the world at the best festival in the world". I've seen them twice live now, and both times have been life changing.

Again, I'll be on from 2200 GMT or so. Just to reiterate, so y'all actually stick around that long!

I'm really interested in Brink, and I think I'll get it for 360, as long as that version gets good enough reviews. 360 simply because all my friends are on it and I like that interface best for online gaming.