deanb

http://www.geek.com/games/ps4-ships-7-million-worldwide-outsells-xbox-one-in-europe-71-1589841/ PS4 approaches 2:1 sales over Xbox One, with a 7:1 gap in Europe. As it notes though Titanfall did just recently hit, which could sway it a bit in Xbones favour a little bit (though PS4 also had Second Son, so who knows)

You'll like Uncle Po

Oh I certainly wouldn't be suggesting they push Vista on users. There's next to no need to present just Windows 8 as a viable alternative to Windows XP though. Especially given most folks still on Windows XP are likely there for reasons that' Win 8 isn't going to alleviate (e.g the support, familiarity, compatibility, affordability etc). On a consumer front you're just going to end up left with folks sticking to XP way past the already unhealthy life span. Microsoft need to figure out if thier plan is to try and sell more copies of Windows 8, or to kill Windows XP once and for all. Not try and do both at the same time.

Been playing Sleeping Dogs. Got the HD texture pack and the game looks great. Really quite liking it, I feel some of the side mission stuff is a bit iffy but as best I can tell it's not really required. I find the drug bust stuff a bit of a pain with taking on about 9 or so gang members at a time, but everything else is quite good. Neat story and somewhat compelling characters that I'd like to see where it's all leading to. Kind of bummed I'd not given the game a shot earlier really. I don't like that Uncle Po though. I shall bring him to "Just us".

They have three current OSes, even Vista has another 3 years left in it yet, with Win 7 supported til 2020. Gives businesses plenty of time to look for alternatives without a need to jump on to Windows 8, which I'm sure with the recent leak from BUILD is going to be a mixed reaction given 1. "Hooray, start menu that everyone in the organisation is used to!" 2. "This is the third time the OS UX has been changed. If we'd been early adopters of Windows 8 we'd have wasted thousands in retraining and now a third time? Hmm, let's hold off till it's finished cooking". Likely with the new CEO they'll redirect efforts a bit to stop pissing off their business users (already expanded Office over to iPad instead of keeping it WinRT only).

Their push of getting folks from Windows XP over to Windows 8 is shortsighted and stupid. But the push to get folks off Windows XP in general is a good one. It's really heavily outdated, a security and compatibility nightmare. The idea of there being businesses using it is even scarier.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/02/microsoft-teases-a-classic-start-menu-for-windows-8-1-with-built/ The old and terrible start menu looks to be making a return and not-Metro Apps to be running inside of...not sure what to call them. Box things like you might find on the side of a building. Whatever that word I'm forgetting is it strikes me as a perfect name to use for an Operating System that would have this feature. In other news Windows 8 continues to gain market share in the face of the decline of XP. Nowhere near as much as Windows 7, but hey small victories? I wonder if reverting to the outdated start menu might cause issues with Windows 8 adoption (though I guess people can use the older Windows 8.0 if they find the newer version teased in the first link to be terrible idea, rather than just getting the newest OS for the sake of a new OS) http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/04/01/windows-7-outgains-windows-8-8-1-market-share-windows-xp-still-27/

I agree with Ethan (well..I will say that Youtube is only a temporary thing. ). Pretty much everything I've seen complaining about YouTube is mostly whiny. Especially on the "requirement" to use your real name. Cos amazingly enough this isn't my real name: https://www.youtube.com/user/deanbmmv. Youtube is tied in with Googles monetization process, which Yahoo won't be able to offer anything near that at all (they had to combine forces with Bing on that front in search already and it's still lacklustre. Ad's are cheaper on Bing, so assumedly people will be paid less for running ad's on thier videos). Youtube also offers a much larger install base too, from just the player through to devices, apps, embeds, widgets, etc too. From a creator side of things Youtube is going to be top dog for a long while. Of course nothing stopping you betting on several horses, and likely many already do. From a viewers perspective YouTube has a vast wealth of content, works on a wide variety of devices, and runs pretty damn well considering. Of course it leans a bit on the "too big to fail", but I don't think a competing Youtube-like service would topple Youtube as much as a competing Google-like search engine would topple Google. It'll be overtaken by something else entirely (To a degree that's happening with Netflix and Twitch). It's also part of a much bigger issue at the moment where there's a lot of power/users focused in extremely large monopolous services/sites. (e.g Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google). They crumble it'll likely be together as part of a bubble bursting than a specific individual failing of any one service/site.

Scratch my last post. Ebuyer sucks.

It was on offer. Who could resist the power of 45,000 floppy discs in the space of a nail. Hooray for MicroSD card slots on phones!

Assuming we're talking about Hobbit, Cumberbatch is the Dragon. Serkis plays Gollum.

And the film that shot them to stardom is 15 years old today. Here's the trailer: p.s watch Animatrix if you haven't.

That's how the Director's Cut is, in the main game only one recharges. You're meant to keep a stock of the energy bars, bit of resource management, if you fully recharged up each time you'd be able to do an awful lot of stuff without thinking about it. Two is good enough to knock out walls and such without needing to charge up right away. Oh in hardest difficulty none recharge (or just the one with DC)

I maybe did. The main issue arises when the image goes and the URL gives zilch indication of what the game is (in this case the image is named "Blood Dragon")

http://imgur.com/a/FDAbV Ceilings of Deus Ex HR. It's rare for folks to bother with the ceilings so this is a nice touch. By the way just a minor thought: I've never had a playthrough with Malik dead. Who comes and saves the scientists at Singapore?

Yay. Another one done. Just another 150 games to go in my backlog. Gonna try and get a bunch out the way in time for Watch_Dogs. Somewhat pleased with current progress.

Huh, never felt there would be much to the barricades to not get. It's clearly there for console limitations to break the hubs up a bit, same with the windows. And if the game is specifically teaching you a mechanic then that specific mechanic is how it should be implemented. Might as well not make a point of teaching any mechanics if you're not going to stick to them. It's like game design 101. Yes the blue glowy bits for your claw are obvious and stand out, and there are some places with scratch marks, for most things you can climb though there's no indicators which means it can be half-hazard on whether you can climb something or not. Just got to try. As I mentioned previously, in my efforts to traverse the city I ended up in a place I wasn't meant to go. Everywhere has loot though, what's the point in having a limited use arrow to get to somewhere that's got the exact same stuff as I can get just by walking down the street with coins littered along boxes? As you said yourself the game is about resource management, if I'm wasting resources to get something that'd cost me nothing normally then that's not a great experience. The comparisons to Deus Ex would be due to: Both from the same studio, both being in stealth-genre (Deus Ex less so, though substantially better pulled off), and them being the two most recent games I've played. I managed to get 10 hours into the game, so I'd hardly say I'm incompetent. In fact competence wouldn't really play into any of the complaints I've made. Even if I was an amazing player it's not going to suddenly open up new routes and fantastic loot in rope arrow areas, it's not going to give any feedback on what the wire cutters are for, make the wheel bug go away, stop the mini map from constantly hiding, make the mechanics more consistent. I only went in with the expectations the game set up (and being reduced in price so quickly from launch it didn't exactly set high expectations in the first place) off-topic: Yeah, it's slow again. SL managed to go to a part of the site he shouldn't have been able to and it's meant forum having to access 2+ year old sections of the database so it'll have gone past Dreamhosts buffer and triggered their fucked up "kill switch" thing.

Also if that's Ethan's ordering I'd strongly recommend he watch Captain America 2 if he has the original so high.

Yeah Jensen is enough of a character he's not a total blank slate, but not too much you get the issue where your actions/words aren't reflected by Jensen aka Nathan Drake killing everyone syndrome. I felt the conversation boss battles helped you define Jensen your own way in areas where it'd matter.

Bwahaha. Ooh I got a brand new star destroyer and I'll give you the key. It sounds like a bad cosplay adaptation, but it's more real than anyone else could do.

Is there a Lvl 2 Focus vision? Cos you two are the first I've heard of any wires going from the pressure plates and the games certainly never given any mention. At Erin's house it specifically shows you to look for hidden buttons, but not following any wires from plate to button, and in my experience none of the wire boxes have been attached to pressure plates (or..anything). The only wire box connected to anything is in the brothel at a boiler, but as I said I didn't have a wire kit at the time, so no idea what that would do. There was certainly no pressure plates in the rooms. Why would it be a weird conclusion that it's a red herring. Given the games existence of empty rooms and dead ends it's not exactly far to assume that some wire boxes are just there to look pretty. Obviously it's not going to be a direct translation from one to another but as an example in DXHR the cameras turn off, turrets shoot other people, doors open. The game has never once taught me what the wire boxes are for. You guys are saying it's for pressure plates, but the game has taught me that pressure plates are disabled via hidden button. Though game also taught me pulleys can be activated by blunt arrows and 8/10 that hasn't been the case. And also not very clear on what can and can't be climbed. Game as a whole has a problem with conveying information and mechanics in a clear and consistent manner. As for the rooms I'm not talking about regular things to pick up, there's usually at least one thing in the drawers though it's rare it covers the cost of the arrow, I'm talking about the fact they're just dead end rooms, there's no exploring to be had, no alternate routes, no special collectible (of which the many many empty slots to fill imply this game has a lot). It's a bit deflating. Once again comparing to DXHR; you smack open a hole in the wall and there's a stash of ammo, grenades, gear, pocket secretary. You crawl through a vent and there's a different way in or a hidden room, and maybe even a computer with story goodies or passcode for upcoming areas. Heck in some places there might even be a Praxis Kit. It made exploring and upgrades worthwhile, it rewarded you. Thief is just a tease. You climb up a crumbly building with ropes hanging from the rafters only to find....rafters. Why put any way of getting up there if there's no reason to actually be there. It's like the complete opposite of games with invisible walls and doors that are just textures. edit: Sorry I should add, since I feel it's important, that by no means am I marking this as the worst game of all time and that I absolutely hate it and it sucks and what not, though I know from the back and forth of you guys pushing me for more and more that's what it maybe comes across as. It just that the game was, for myself (and from the reviews likely many others too), frustrating, lacking in polish, and generally just not worth my time to try and complete. Maybe in the far flung future I'll get to it and maybe see about working my way through it. But from my 10 hours with it (probably a bit less, have a habit of alt-tabbing), so a fair shake, it just wasn't a game I was happy with wasting my time on.

As in there's zilch feedback it's disabling traps(or doing anything). I'd assume it's doing something, but there's no indication of what it's doing/affecting. Which given the rope arrows that go to empty rooms wouldn't surprise me if it is just a red herring. Also the pressure plates are stopped by hidden buttons nearby usually, no wires running from them though (which'd be handy).

Just to slightly damper this. This was announced last year around about this time: http://www.deusex.com/humandefiance Somewhat hoping it won't be done again (for one Eidos has more than one game they can use for April Fools), but you never know.