WTF

Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity There's going to be more this week and then a break till Catherine hopefully.

So I've been playing Alice: Madness Returns (PC version) and it's really nice. I bought it off of EADM right before they switched to Origin since I had a 20 quid voucher and I must say that I've been enjoying the game so far. I do feel bad that the game's been reviewed pretty crap. However the thing is this is a game that in some ways show that modern game aesthetics need to change. A game should not have to be 'easy' or fit in with current aesthetics to be reviewed high. An interesting example of this is Under Siege being reviewed as 5 because the game is too hard for the reviewer. I've tried the game and honestly I can say it's the best RTS on a console and even otherwise it is a fun RTS. It's a bit punishing in the sense that like a lot of older RTS games where you carry over an army being stupid does cost you quite a bit. I think for Strategy fans it's definitely a delight and if there are people who enjoyed the Myth games here - they should give it a go. Definitely one for those group of people. As for what I'm currently playing - PC Alice, The Witcher 2, Sins of a Solar Empire PS3 Outland, DLC fest (Castlevania, LA Noire DLC on wednesday, Stacking DLC later this week), Demon's Souls, perhaps the evil playthrough of Infamous 2 if I get some time and Shadows of the Damned later this week Wii Pikmin, Fragile Dreams 360 - nothing right now but will get to finishing Reach and Fable 3 at some point (somehow I'm just not too keen on either for a few months now).

I actually wanted to post this myself but forgot cause I was busy. Some titles worth getting are Sins of a solar empire trinity $10 or 6.08 quid which is actually cheaper than retail at the moment. Gal Civ 1 complete for 3 quid some Gal Civ 2 complete for 4 quid Demigod for 4 quid I believe And sword of the stars collection for 4.49 quid.

They're an unsigned band (afaik) who were used in a Firefly trailer as well as the infamous power trailer. Honestly I'm not a fan of the vocals but the bassline and intro is pretty sweet. Also the 2 tracks before it were But mostly it's been a 6music day.

You know I really didn't want to wade much into the DNF thread because honestly right now it's the in thing to hate. It really is. I believe Sana's pretty much made a good post about its pros and cons. The true issue with the game is Duke hasn't aged well. For instance do you remember all the racist/sexist commercials and films back in the 50s and 60s. Now imagine if someone just released one of those 'unreleased' films from back then now as if it were a new film. What would the general reaction be? It'd be one of disgust, hatred and people would be like it's shit. Technically and conceptually this game is a Frankenstein monster put to life and set out to breathe because people wanted to release the game and revive the franchise. The game runs on a UE2 engine that'd been badly optimised and no it's not going to be that good. But if you do tweak it and give it a few fixes then yes it can work and you can get it running to look quite decent. Now getting into the game's story and stuff. I haven't played it. You know what I knew it would be bad. Duke games have always been bad, people seem to have conveniently forgotten how bad they've always been. When the game was previewed all the 'previewers' just wanted more booze and strippers. I mean it was held in Las Vegas and had both of those in plenty. Everyone raved about it and said it was awesome. Mostly because of that and because the game was finally coming out after all these years. People seemed to have conveniently forgotten that a) the game would not have aged well, B) it's now targeting a different audience, with different sentimentalities and many who have grown up from their juvenile days and c) various reasons (which I'll get into ). People let their enthusiasm get the better of them. I dunno why people fall for advertising and marketing so easily (oh wait scratch that I worked in advertising so I do know why but still when you work behind the scenes you find it so weird that people fall for it because we honestly never believed that people would buy some of the stuff we sold but they did and it was usually surprising cause we'd mostly see through that in other products). Some of the things were badly executed but have they not been in a Duke game before? Oh yeah they have. I don't know why people expected any different. It's like going to a Star Wars film and not expecting to see light sabers and the force. Of course we didn't expect the midichlorians which this game does in some ways but not as bad as that still. Regardless I don't think this game is as bad as people make it out to be. What I mean by that is. It's just like how Duke was always. and if you expected any different then you just fell for the hype. I'm going to find it hilarious when a Blood sequel eventually gets made and people take offense with that (it's probably going to happen). Or if Snatcher gets re-released and people think oh you should not be beheading people like that. In 1988 it was ok to do that. In 2011 not so much. Also there are far more disturbing things in fiction than this. For instance the human centipede 2 was rightly banned and I know actors who've worked in those films (one of them well enough). Honestly they hate the film as well. It's probably going to scar someone who watches it. If you want to read why the BBFC banned the film you can read it here --> http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=31162 Fortunately none of the actors I knew were the ones who went through the scenes with such stuff but you do get the idea. In the case of DNF, it just should not have been released and there should not have been this ridiculous amount of public interest in it either. I do feel sorry for the Redner group when what they actually were saying was that some companies should not be given the games to review. What they meant was that not they hated negative reviews but they just wish reviews were fair even if they were negative and not just something to start flamewars. Though the tweet was worded wrong and led to them being let off by 2K.

I'm waiting for my copy of Alice Complete Edition to be unlocked on Origin. Hopefully tonight since I'd like to get it downloaded and out of the way.

Lol Sorry. Well I am English technically. My roots not so much. My mother is Spanish, Middle Eastern, Indian and English and my father is mostly English and a bunch of other stuff. My grandparents on one side dropped most of their British Heritage for some reason and wanted to live in the 'colonial nations'. Not to mention I was raised in 7 nations so my accent and language is all over the place. And to think I spoke RP and went to a public school when I was a kid, still I did only have private education for most of my life so I'm going to sound funny. I sound 'British' to Americans and I sound 'American' or 'Canadian' to most Londoners today (though I didn't some 20 years ago). Truth be told, due to my education and roots, I enunciate a fair bit and pronounce words in British English, however, due to my travels I've picked up on 'TV language' since outside the UK a lot of international schools tend to be more Americanised mostly to do with the fact they have kids whose parents work for oil companies or are from the various US military bases... as a result my language and accent for lack of a better word is quite 'international' which sucks because I have no sense of national identity or even identity for that matter. I hate and love everyone equally XD. I don't tend to get into details about my background because uh I still like to remain slightly anonymous on the internet That post was worded specifically because of my 4 years spent in India and coming to terms with a culture where I felt extremely alien (they're extremely friendly people, but my first year of living there I struggled in learning the language and had to start from a basic level because while they all spoke English I wanted to know if anyone said anything behind my back - call it paranoia).

Chutney! Gah what you have in England is not Chutney and I have no idea how it came to be (except it was probably a colonial thing). It's one of those borrowed words that refers to stuff indiscriminately. A chutney is not sweet. It's only sweet in England or rather the UK. Gah it's one of those words that's forever going to piss me off with the usage here because when I ask for Chutney I mean this---> I hate loanwords in all languages mostly when it's used wrong. It doesn't help that I actually spent a few years in India and also hate some of the double-word usages there (there are usages where they basically affix the English word to the local language word and then call it that and it makes no sense). Chutney is meant to go with Dosas which I wish people would add an H to since it's pronounced Doshas. It's a weird thing that I've come across with certain people in Central India which drove me nuts when I visited. My name has an sh in it and they'd skip the h sound for an S and for those names with an s they'd add an h and pronounce it like a sh... Sigh Phallus you just brought me a world of annoyance tonight XD with that chutney mention.

Finished inFamous 2 on Heroic with a good ending. All I can say is Now don't get me wrong. The game is actually fun to play and it is good but for some reason the ending pretty much bummed me out. Now I know they can pretty much make inFamous 3 if they want - there are hints that they could but to be honest this could also quite easily be the end of the series which in a way is quite odd. I did like the second game more than the first and though Cole was replaced with a different voice actor - it didn't feel too different and his character model probably staying somewhat similar to the old one makes it feel that way. I do feel sorry for the character. It was good pulp I'll give it that. I mean it's not some highly intellectual sort of thing but you get the same feeling you do when certain comics end or certain stuff happens.

In a nutshell Origin is Ea Download Manager with a friendslist that can now popup when you're in game if you want. It's no steam or anything. It isn't great but neither is it bad.

All I'll say is that the season 3 finale left me feeling eh? But Walter is quite an enjoyable character as is Nimoy's when you finally see him (almost spoilered who he was). I'm not going to say much about it. And all I can say is you're not predicting it quite right as yet . Walter has some interesting history. As for Anna Torv she might be familiar as she was the voice and did the mocap for Nariko in Heavenly Sword. Season 3 had it's ups and downs. But you are not on the money about few of your predictions. Still I'm not going to spoil it

Hermes is worse. I mean seriously the guy who delivers to my area is total dumbass - well one of them anyways and I've met him. They literally would leave an expensive package at your front door if you're not in and then drop a message saying they couldn't put it through your door. Fortunately I was working nearby so I found it in front of my door but really - I'd be annoyed if this was when I was living in not so nice neighbourhoods. HDN was terrible but now they've got something that tells which hour your delivery would arrive which makes it helpful. Even Citilink which amazon still uses had issues when I was living in some places here. When it comes to couriers it really depends on where you live and as a result it's one of those things where ymmv. What you said about HDN is exactly what I've experienced with Hermes recently :/ - I believe it's down to where you live and that's really the courier firms fault. However DHL and TNT are pretty good almost always.

Pretty much this ^ Though I do feel Atelier has evolved as a series (love the art-style, reminds me of European fairytale art touched with modern Japanese art tastes) and I really look forward to play Meruru when it gets here in 2012 (or if my Japanese improves I'll import it I suppose but doubt that's going to happen right now).

I don't think memory cards will cost as much - probably sell for a bit more than cost since it's not going to be used for any other device initially (maybe cameras later). They're going to make a pretty good markup via the digital store (yes a lot of people do buy games digitally these days and in fact many people actually bought infamous 2 via the store even though the digital version is £10 cheaper. There's also the fact that God of War: Ghost of Sparta must have sold 500k copies by Feb-March in Pal territories despite not doing so much at retail since it was released as a Platinum (greatest hits) title in April. That must mean it sold well digitally). I think the memory cards will be reasonable. However I do believe that despite them taking a loss on hardware they are going to be really profitable on software. Comments like development costs mirror PSP dev costs right now pretty much help realise that games will definitely make the Vita business profitable. Hirai's statements about 'platform' pretty much give us an idea of how they work these days. Whatever hits they take with hardware will be absorbed by the software. I'm not expecting memory cards to be dirt cheap but I think we could expect 16GB for £40ish easily. (I imagine it being cheaper than CF cards which usually go for £50-60s)

Well my partner enjoyed Ar Tonelico and well if she finished it, it's probably good and easy to get an ending. I haven't finished Rorona or Ar Tonelico though I started both of them. I've put them on the backburner for now while I finish Infamous 2, a Demon's Souls playthrough, the LoS DLC, AC:B( -.- why did i not finish this as yet? I should've waited and bought it for the PC considering I didn't play more than 4 hours). I did finish Neptunia, which was mostly I have to finish this soon and I can honestly tell you that while I enjoyed parts of it towards the end it just became a skip fighting animation while half asleep to finish the game sort of game. I wish I'd platinumed it while I was still playing it. I'm also doing a Persona 4 playthrough since this is 2011 and I wanted to keep a journal to follow the game on a day by day basis but I got so busy the past 2 months...

Play.com used to be really good but then it's become a bit shit. I mean I did get my Infamous Hero edition on time but generally games arrive quite slow and it's not the best. But miles better than anything from thehut group (zavvi, asda direct, lovefilm store, the hut, sendit, iwoot, etc). I generally tend to use Shopto and Game (loyalty points) and occasionally Amazon too. I tend to have a business account with Amazon for Prime (delivery of work related stuff) so that's my excuse to use amazon when the prices are low. However barring a few exceptions you do get preorders on the Friday if you've ordered from them. Honestly most online game retailers aren't the best for delivery lately. Game group is still decent and Shopto is as well.

I actually had a chance to play the Japanese version of the game and tried the first demo months back. Honestly what I thought of the game was that it's more of an Okami meets Viewtiful joe with a different combat aesthetic. It's a Clover game through and through and you can see that as the game progresses. I'd recommend renting it if you're not sure. The game gets fun and some of the combat especially towards the later levels is pretty hard. I've not really finished the game or anything but just tried a few levels. It impressed me before just for the eye-candy but now it's impressed me for more reasons than that

I Should post pictures when I have time: All of these were in the span of 4-5 weeks Infamous 2 Hero Edition LA Noire Mortal Kombat Fragile Dreams The Witcher 2 Grey matter Broken Sword Trilogy Warhammer 40k: Retribution Collector's Ed Alice Complete Collection (EA Store a week or so before they renamed it to Origin) Red Johnson's Chronicles Under Siege Alpha Protocol (PC Version) Finished it on the PS3 already. FF4 Collection Condemned 2 Castlevania: Resurrection Parasite Eve 2 Outland Killzone: Liberation (Free) Modnation Racers (Free) Hustle Kings (Free) Those three were thanks to the PSN outage. Non-Games 2X GTX 570 Man my gaming related expenses are getting nuts... The sad thing is. I know I'm skipping stuff because I can't remember. Fortunately I have nothing planned after Shadows of the Damned till Catherine and El Shaddai which come out on the same day.

Yeah I think he wasn't told that he'd been replaced till someone broke the news to him. I guess it's mostly because none of the staff from the original games (Well the main staff I suppose) are attached to this game. It is crap to be let off like that and I know how annoying/terrible it feels.

L.A. Noire (Platinum) + DLC. I'm really trying to finish my backlog one step at a time. Because I was so busy at work and not at home - my partner managed to finish Yakuza 4, Ar Tonelico, Red Johnson, Broken Sword 1-3, Grey matter and so many others. Man I really wish I had time for gaming. Witcher 2 beckons but I've barely managed to finish more than 4hrs of the game. And this week I'm getting Alice (already paid for) and next week Shadows of the Damned while I'm still trying to finish Infamous 2 -.- WTB more time.

Since this was the Hitman thread figured I'd mention a few things about the new game. Firstly David Bateson (the voice and look of 47) has been unceremoniously dumped from the game. Jesper Kyd will also not be returning. Seems like the team that worked on Kane and Lynch 2 is working on this game. Game is definitely more action-ey. In fact there's even a detective mode from Batman in the game. Instinct Mode replaces the map which works similar to the conviction mode (was that what it was called?) like Splinter Cell: Conviction. It gets refilled by stealth kills, it's upgradeable and used when donning a disguise, allows you to see through walls and even reading the minds of characters in easier difficulties. There's also a slow-mo mode when you get caught so that you can try and find stuff to keep yourself disguised.

I've actually got a gift pack from someone visiting India. This was the place. http://srikrishnasweets.com/sweets.htm I know I should've taken pictures but the guys on the set loved most of it and it was finished off pretty fast . Awesome stuff.