Thursday Next

Exactly what I was thinking. A service layered on top of PS4. It'll also be a chance for PlayStation to be ahead of Xbox having previously been behind with regards to online services. Streaming demos is a good idea, I also like the idea of being able to stream a game immediately after buying it and downloading a version for offline play. You'll have all the benefits of digital plus the instant access of dropping a disc in your console. From a DRM /Piracy perspective, streaming would make the console pretty much bulletproof, except for account hacking / sharing, not that the PS3 was particularly prone to hacking itself.

SOLD! Assuming this is a retailer exclusive. Also... pretty shameful this: http://www.play.com/Search.html?searchstring=ni+no+kuni&searchsource=0&searchtype=allproducts http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ni+no+kuni&x=0&y=0 http://www.game.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/AjaxCatalogSearch?storeId=10151&catalogId=10201&langId=44&pageSize=20&beginIndex=0&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType=2&showResultsPage=true&pageView=image&predictiveSearchURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.game.co.uk%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FAjaxPredictiveSearchView%3FcatalogId%3D10201%26langId%3D44%26storeId%3D10151&searchTerm=ni+no+kuni&searchBtn.x=0&searchBtn.y=0&searchBtn=Search So two "jack of all trade" online retailers have references to ni no kuni, but the "specialist" retailer is apparently utterly unaware of the existence of this title.

I didn't even know they were in a Twilight film; I just know that people go on rants for how much they hate Muse. Sticking to stereotype. I think that pedantry bit was aimed at me. I happen to be a huge Muse fan. Don't see how anyone can consider that a guilty pleasure though. The Twilight thing is a bit repellent, but apparently they inspired the Meyer woman (from the Muse wiki: "-- And, finally, thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me, particularly the band Muse - there are emotions, scenes, and plot threads in this novel that were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius. --" The Meyer Woman) and, Muse's bassist did basically say that they sold their souls to get some exposure in America. So it wasn't anything personal, it was just business. You ask any professional musician if they would be ok with their song appearing on the soundtrack to a guaranteed blockbuster film and I reckon they'd say "Sure!". Otherwise, they are (in my experience) widely regarded as technically talented musicians, who tend to experiment with a lot of different sounds with varying success, and are one of (if not the) best live acts in the world ever.

I find it no more ridiculous than any other religion. Slightly more insidious than some perhaps, though it is at least overt in its efforts to screw its congregation out of their money. I've also got to give them a bit of credit for targeting celebs. It's a genius system. Appeal to the egos of Hollywood stars who spend hundreds of thousands to look young by telling them that they are some sort of immortal superbeing who has forgotten how to live forever. If their "therapy" can help them remember how to be immortal, then they will be young and attractive and useful forever.

Could mean that the PS4 is a very different beast to the PS3, if Sony bring a whole streaming cloud game service it's going to make the WiiU look even more like a last Gen console than it (imho) already does. I'm hoping that the Vita will get some streaming capability too. I was only kidding about relocating the thread. It was just a nice segue into posting about the takeover. I'm curious as to how MS will react to this. Lots of talk about OnLive and MS pairing up to counter it, but it's all just fevered speculation. Also, 380 million is CHEAP given that you are buying an entire platform and all the infrastructure at the cutting edge of the industry. Makes Facebook's purchase of Instagram and Zynga's of Draw Something seem even more silly by comparison.

I've not heard many (if any) people describe it as "bad" let alone "really bad". The metacritic is in the mid seventies on PS3 and Xbox. Not sure if a bad port is the reason for a high sixty score on PC. But nothing there suggests a "really bad" game. Most criticism comes from it being Not Syndicate Enough. Personally, I think it is challenging (for a modern FPS) has a an interesting tweak in the form of breaching. The style is reminiscent of Blade Runner / Deus Ex. It's a pretty enough game. Story is a bit all over the place but overall it's an enjoyable experience. I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it given that you went in with fairly low expectations. I picked up Unit 13 at the weekend. Finding it quite enjoyable. It's definitely made for portables. All the missions are fairly bite sized and there is no narrative. But the controls and what not are all tight. I'm liking it.

"Guilty Pleasures. Stuff you enjoy and you don't care what others think!" Technically speaking, if you don't care what others think, then you won't feel guilty. Ergo, they are just Pleasures. I have different circles of friends and I don't talk to some of them about some of the things I enjoy as I know they will disapprove. For example, my housemate is in a thrash metal band. As such, La Roux is a guilty pleasure when I am around him and his band mates. As is most of the sci-fi, geeky stuff that I like. Among some of my other friends, my enjoyment of Studio Ghibli movies is something of a guilty pleasure, though in a different circle, it's not in the least bit guilty.

So are we moving this to the Sony thread then? http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/07/02/sony-computer-entertainment-acquires-cloud-gaming-company-gaikai-for-380-million/

wat? Quite.

I always pick the hot chick. If I'm gonna spend hours staring at a picture of an arse, it might as well be a cute chick's arse.

Hahaha. Love it. They couldn't even get interns to weed the trolls from the commenters. How the hell is an algorithm going to manage?

Totally agree that it's a symbolic gesture. It's a milestone, something that 15 years ago would have been utterly unthinkable, but it certainly isn't a stand on an aircraft carrier "Mission Accomplished" moment. It's a step along the way.

It's going to be an American Sherlock isn't it. He'll have British ancestry but will have been raised in New York or some crap. I don't know anything about it and I already hate it almost as much as I hated the US version of Red Dwarf.

I agree with Dean. Cell makes a lot of sense to stick with now that devs are used to it. Especially given how scalable the system is. Making a more powerful cell is as simple as gaffer taping more cells together. Sony have (I hope) learned a lot from the PS3 with regard to not locking down RAM to certain functions (and putting more in).

In as non-controversial terms as possible... The hand that she will be shaking is attached to a former commander of the IRA. The IRA often referred to the royal family as the enemy and were responsible for a bomb attack that killed the Queen's cousin, Lord Mountbatten (sp?). The handshake signifies a commitment to put old differences behind us and move forward in peace and cooperation. The former IRA agreeing to forgive the deaths of their members (and in some cases family), the Queen (and by extension the UK, RUC, British Army etc etc etc) doing the same. It's a water under the bridge/reconcilliation thing.

The way I see it going is that everyone will use always online DRM. You'll need a unique, entitled account that cannot have any other simultaneous logins to play any game. Some games will let you purchase the whole thing up front, with maybe some tacked on microtransactions (a la Diablo 3) others will be free to play charging you for resources or weapons or whatever like EA's Play4Free titles. I think that we're approaching a critical mass of online connectivity where making everyone go online all the time is actually feasible. The people who are not able to stay connected 24/7 (or for as long as they are playing) will be left to catch up. Everyone will swallow it. Some noisy dissenters will threaten boycotts but will ultimately cave, especially when these dissenters are most likely those who are easily able to meet the requirement to be online all the time. Then instead of people stealing games from companies, they will steal accounts from customers. Your games will get transferred to another account, your password will get changed and you will lose access to all your games while you go through a customer service experience so excruciating that you will long to be fed to a sarlacc. And then, once (if) you get your games back you will learn that the authentication servers for your favourite classic title have been taken down since you were the only person left that played it. Then you will wail and beat your chest and cry "Why!?! Oh why did I not listen to ThursdayNext when he was dropping sagacious pronouncements? Why did I continue in my piratey ways? Now I am forced to restart my town in Zynga's SweatshopVille. My WoW lvl 873 Dark Elf Rogue Mage is naked and weaponless and my Battlefield 9 stats have been reset! Woe!!! Woe is me!" And I shall say. "Called it."

I think they buy systems they don't want so that when someone points out that they are a massively blinkered nintendo fanboy, they can reply with "Nuh uh! I own allllll the consoles. Twice!"

Is it that soon. Coolio!

Yeah, next up for me is silvering all the missions. Then it's the real tough / annoying challenge of getting gold on the (probably impossible) sliding races. I just can't grasp the mechanics fully. Maybe it will come with time, and a fully upgraded Kat.

Well, sure of course you check the lmgtfy before posting it. Just like you check that searching the forum for a thread brings up the right thread before you tell someone to go search the damned forum.

Sometimes lmgtfy is the perfect answer. Some people are really rather lazy.

You'd just have everyone on holiday for a year. It's an idea that I am totally serious about and honestly think is fully workable with absolutely no potential for any fallout whatsoever. I was not at all joking. You totally need the games industry. How else would you fill your days?

If you kill the nevi on the Saturn-ish rock there will be a health orb that keeps reappearing. I just took a trip to the flying one. Hit it a few times and then scurried off to get my health back. Did that a few times till it went down. The hardest bit of that one is knowing when to retreat. A few times I was one node from killing it and pushed my luck too far.

I would love to see all the content producers in the world boycott customers for a year. A whole year of no new games, music, books, films, anything for people to steal. An absolutely perfect form of DRM. No hacks, cracks or keygens. No "For all you know this is a legitimate backup" or "I'm pirating to demo it". Just nothing. Perhaps then you'd all have a greater appreciation of how much you need your entertainment overlords and would actually stick your hands in your pockets instead of picking theirs.