TheFlyingGerbil

first, last and only, I'm guessing

well, it can't be worse than the british in AC III

How does everyone feel about the French Revolution setting? Is that what you were hoping for?

Did any of you play Two Brothers? It seems to have had mixed reviews, but I sent them an email to see if it was coming out on other formats still and I got this reply: Sounds like the original was a good idea, but needed a bit of polishing up so hopefully the ports realise the original's full potential. BUT, how freaking cool does a mother-style 3D RPG sound? Hopefully they'll have more experience for their second game and it will be as good as one short sentence makes it sound.

I just completed Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in one sitting. I enjoyed it a lot. I would say it is my favourite storytelling experience of any game I've played - It conveyed everything it wanted to in a simple, non-intrusive way. A lot of games try to have too much story. It felt like a proper adventure to me, like LOTR, starting out in your village and everything slowly gets bigger and more daunting. The idea of controlling the two brothers at the same time worked well. I did get myself mixed up a few times when I had them on the screen the wrong way around. I guess some people may complain that it was too easy, but I think it was more about the experience than the challenge so I think it was pitched well. It was also a nice change to have a game without combat. I thought the graphical style was very pretty It had the same solid looking rocks that the cave had, and I loved the rocks in that game too - I think it's because they look like they're painted instead of trying to look real. I didn't like how the people looked though, they didn't seem to fit in to the world somehow, maybe they looked a bit Kingdom hearts? cartoons in a painted world. Anyway. Overall, this is the sort of game I could play all day. Been looking for things that are similar: Dust an elysian tale papo & yo to the moon ico journey two brothers, strangely similar title! came up. Would you guys agree or have any other suggestions?

the conniving bastards.

"a head mounted display with 1080p resolution" makes it sound like there isn't a screen for each eye, and that if it is 3D it wouldn't be 1080o for each eye. I really want full HD injected directly into each eyeball.

Are they officially released in the UK yet or is that an import? edit: I see it's out in the UK now,I was sure I read recently it wasn't out for a while here yet. I kind of wish it would plug into a USB port as I don't have a spare HDMI port on my TV

I love bassets. Was not expecting that many.

It doesn't mention anything about stereoscopic 3D? I thought that was usually a part of VR. VR headsets were my last hope of getting more 3D in my life...

I guess the EU one would just be UK worst for everything.

Yeah I guess Nintendo just put the cheapest components in they can find. It seems to be their undoing on several occasions. I think I forgot to put my main 3ds bugbear in my original post so I may as well add that in now. It's the hinge on the 3ds. My original one was so flappy I had to exchange it and when I got my xl it seemed firm enough so I was happy they had improved it but over time it's got looser and looser to the point were I worry about it. And it's not from harsh use.

you don't hold the pad as close as your 3DS or phone though do you? I think my order is phone closest, then 3DS then gamepad. I may hold it a bit closer when I'm using off screen play, rather than using it just as a controller and the screen is a menu, but I definitely not as close as the 3DS still. I can't be arsed turning it on to check, and I'm sure I can see the pixels on it, but I'm sure the pad's resolution doesn't bother me half as much as the contrast, nor the resolution on the 3DS. Maybe it's because of the bright, simpler graphics on 3DS games shows up the problem worse on the 3DS than the higher polgon/textures do on the Wii U? I swear I could cut myself on some of the 3DS jaggies. Just made a quick search: DPI of my phone is 329 (obvs, others are higher/lower) the gamepad is 158 3DS is 132 XL is 96 this ones not really as relevant, but a 42" 1080p screen is 53 DPI though you are considerably further away so the gamepad has a 50% higher pixel density and I hold it slightly further away than my 3DS XL so the pixels are a lot less visible.

On the Wii U screen, the resolution doesn't really bother me I guess because you don't hold it as close as a 3DS/phones, but I would love it to have better contrast/saturation as it looks ugly and washed out, which isn't helped by that really flexible, thin plastic resistive touch film that covers it and seems slightly opaque. I'd also kill puppies for it to be capacitive, since I use my fingers on it mostly and it frequently doesn't register my presses and only having one touch point sensitivity is really restrictive in what you can do with it. Also, the resolution was mentioned a lot when people were reviewing the hardware, as they were disappointed it wasn't at least 720p so you could play in HD for off TV play. and the resolution of the 3DS was also criticised a lot when it came out as not being much of an increase from the DS and and again when the 3DS XL came out with the pixels being stretched. I guess its not mentioned as much any more as people are more talking about the games now not the hardware as that's not the new conversation any more. As to phones, the screen is one of the main differentiators as they're all running the same OS and have mostly the same internal components and can all run the same apps. When you're comparing different consoles there are so many more differences to talk about from hardware, to software and games any one aspect is going to be a smaller point of the conversation. I know 3D is dead in the water at this point (in most media not just games) but I love it and I'm really disappointed 3D isn't a standard feature on PS4 games. It's one of the reasons I didn't rush out and buy one. It's already harder to find on TVs, having been replaced by smart functions as the middle range selling point. I'm hoping I'm going to be able to buy and use an occulus rift as a 3D display for movies and stereoscopic 3D games on my PS3/4, not just for VR on PC. I use it 90% of the time on my 3DS, I only turn it off if I'm lying in an awkward position so I'm not head on to it, and sometimes outside in bright light it doesn't look right, though the XL improves on this a lot over the original 3DS. I'd look forward to a higher resolution 3DS successor, as the pixels are rather visible, especially on XL and straight lines are ghastly, but there would be no point releasing a higher resolution version of the current 3DS as the games wouldn't support it. Maybe it's the type of games I play, but I've never wanted or missed a second analogue stick, not that I'd complain if it was there - again, it's something for the successor, not a redesign. I also find it more comfortable to hold than the vita, but since ergonomics is mostly a personal thing I wouldn't sit there arguing either way about that. I like the clamshell design, none of my 4 clamshell nintendo consoles have had any screen scratches, but both my vita and PSP have deep gashes in their screens, even though I use them a LOT less and always keep them in a case. I've never worked out how either got there. As to the two screens, I could live without it I suppose but I do like the touch screen being below the "action" screen, so I'm not blocking my view of it, and as screens get bigger this makes more of a difference as more of your hand has to cover the screen to reach all of it. And as I said I like the clamshell design, so it's nice to have the bottom half with something nice on it. Having said that if they built to a strict budget on the 3DS successor (as they inevitably will) I would be happy with just a touchpad on the bottom half if it meant they'd put a nicer, higher res screen on the top. (I chopped this up a lot so sorry if it doesn't read well.)

Does anyone watch any quiz shows? My favourite is Pointless. In fact it's the only one I watch at the moment. Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman are great and great together - I really don't want to find if they only met for the show as I was fully traumatised when I heard the same about the Two Fat Ladies (still the best cookery programme ever).

and i fell for it! Damn it

Tesla has physical show rooms in New Jersey to sell the cars from so it seems that it is specifically that car companies can't sell their own cars. It just seems quite restrictive, which in my mind is not very American and also that they've modified the law specifically with Tesla in mind, unless I'm just reading badly written articles.

Why are some states banning direct sales of Tesla cars, and how are they allowed to do this?

A lot of old Amiga games that work on your PC, without an emulator. Woohoo.

Having seen the international women's day google doodle it reminded me of this song I hadn't heard in years. Turned out it was the same person.

I just watched that barney video again and I freaking love it. Do you all see her video looking for tension tamer tea? That was hilarious. Here she is playing GTAV.I probably shouldn't admit, but it is pretty much exactly how I play a video game.

here's an article about a "new" way to speed read. (actually originally developed in the 70s) It's interesting because on the Spritz site I can read their 600 wpm sample fine but when I read traditionally I am super slow, as I do the subvocalization thing mentioned in the article. I think this method may help me to just look at a word and take it in rather reading and comprehending each word individually. Having said that it would probably be quite relentless and draining for anything too long. I have dozens of articles I've saved instead of reading because of the length of them, and this would help you power through them instead of chucking them in a pile I'll never touch, but the fact it mentions novels, even light reading novels I think would be too much - I read to relax and I don't think "spritzing" is relaxing so I'd say more for information than enjoyment, but a pretty cool idea.

Pancakes, of course. We had a bit of double cream that needed using so I whipped that up. I always forget I don't like whipped cream on hot food - when it melts it tastes too fatty and I feel gross now.

The UK's Eurovision 2014 entry... I'm guessing we won't be hosting in 2015.