Thursday Next

The emails are amusing sometimes, like the one that said that unlike Greek Mythology in God of War, Norse mythology in Too Human and Thor, there were no games of note about Christian mythology released in NA apart from El Shaddai Rise of the Metatron, despite the fact that they spent a whole 3-4months burning cheques, opening boxes and so forth during the Dante's Inferno advertising campaign. I mean seriously, how can you talk about Christian mythology in videogames without referencing Dante's Inferno? Especially where the games are similar in genre. I get that a lot of it is quotes from the guy making the game, so why not put the question to him? How does your take on Christian mythology differ to Dante? Would it be that hard? Slap-dash, shoddy reporting as usual.

I didn't like her at first, she's grown on me. I love when her prison guards get all panicky and they get on the phone and say:

Ok, so the principal is sound, it just needs to be the right content? Would you feel ok about extra levels/quests in SP campaigns, like Bioware tend to do?

Online Pass doesn't artificially devalue used games. It actually devalues them. That the retailer does not recognise this is not the fault of the publisher, it's the fault of the retailer. If you try to trade in a game without a manual retailers (used to) give you less money for it and, in turn, charge the consumer less, you made the choice to buy a game without a manual knowing that you are getting less than someone who buys the game with the manual. If you then go and buy a manual separately, that's your choice. Online Pass is no different, except for the fact that retailers are slow to accept that the product has a lower value and to pass that down the chain.

1. I don't care, MW was never my style of shooter. 2. Major rival needs to die in a fire. Bearing in mind the EA solution to bringing down COD seems to be toss out as many modern war games as possible and oversaturate the market, disillusioning consumers n bringing the genre crashing down Guitar Hero style. At least we have a plan.

Sorry about that, if it's any consolation, it's the only one, so you don't have to choose between several different skins/packs/whatever.

1. I don't care, MW was never my style of shooter. 2. Major rival needs to die in a fire.

If people stop buying used games because they don't want to have to buy the Online Pass then the onus will be on the retailers to drop the price of used games further. Currently the mark-up on used games is obscene, we all know how little we get on the trade in compared to how much GAME and the like charge for pre-owned, often the retailer is making a huge profit on a game they have already sold for a profit at least once before. Online Pass gives consumers a choice, they can get a game second hand, for cheap, they can then pay the $10 if or when they want to, to access the full content, or they can buy a new copy and enjoy the full experience out of the box. With the likes of Tesco and Asda going to the mattresses over games such as FIFA and CoD, the brand new version of the game is often lower than the pre-owned price in specialist retailers anyway. The publishers really aren't looking to hurt to consumers, the only people that should be punished by Online Pass is the reseller, but, until consumers wake up and force GAME to drop their pre-owned prices by $10 (by not buying at the usual, extortionate) pre-owned price, the consumer will continue to bear the brunt.

Oh right, that's an officially official image. Part of the local retailer preorder exclusive Battlefield 3™ Limited Edition: Physical Warfare Pack, containing the extra weapons shown above plus the Back to Karkand expansion (four classic BF2 maps) at no extra cost.

It does seem to be giving away a lot, but I think FLD is spot on in his reasoning. GL is not one of the better known heroes like Spidey or Batman and he doesn't have a grander mythology to back him up like Thor, so you need to do a lot of exposition to get folk interested. Also, yes, the ring does look utterly stupid. Another hangover from the comic that perhaps has not aged so well and could have done with a redesign. I guess it's tough to draw the line between making the film feel relevant while remaining true to the origins.

How do you mean real? In real life real? Or, in BF3 real? Because they are definitely in BF3.

@Strangelove and FDS: As amusing as my lack of encyclopaedic knowledge of the (entirely fictional) life and times of the comic book Steve Rogers is, I have yet to see anything approaching a counterpoint to all the reasonable deductions from the available trailers of the upcoming *movie* depiction of him. Maybe if you took a break from your snide elitism and spent a minute to actually tell me how I am wrong in my assessment of the movie trailer you'd actually add something beyond pointless snickering to the thread?

Hehe... Awesome. That's going up on facebook.

I'm interested. Not sure where I'm going to find time for this though. Looks like a fun RPG, I assume the survivors are all immune to zombification, otherwise I'll be a bit annoyed if they do a "person got bit but didn't tell anyone" thing. The only problem I have with this as a game concept is if I can lop off zombie limbs at will then it's a bit annoying when zombie bosses somehow have heads arms and legs that are harder to remove than mooks. Zombies should be a "strength in numbers" sort of foe not a 12 health bar boss thing.

Like the hating humans thing is a Flesh idea that is overriding the gangers' minds? Otherwise, yeah, I'm really not buying "Human leader acted like a dick, so all humans must die even the one I fell for, who has not done anything but be kind." Surprised they missed out on an opportunity to kill a FleshRory, maybe they're saving it for this weekend? Also, what do you think the chances are that FleshDoctor will last another ~200 years and can regenerate? Would be a tidy way to tie up the start of the season, but given how early he's been introduced (and the fact that I can envision a trip to an acid bath in his imminent future) I doubt it. I think it's a shame the "BadWolf" subtlety has been lost. The Crack in the wall and the Drums were a bit telegraphed too (the Crack more-so as the meaning/purpose of the Drums kept changing), but this woman in the hatch thing is just so in your face, I wish they'd gone a different way with it, put it in the background so that you aren't really aware of it. I wonder, could she be the girl with "Time-Head" looking in on Amy from a cloaked Tardis?

Perhaps Twisted Metal will renew peoples desire for violent vehicular combat? TM being PlayStation exclusive, Carmageddon could benefit on the 360 et al.

I *loved* Crisis Core. This is an insta-buy when it emerges in the UK.

Weedy person = Useless? Check. Not jock? GTFO? Check. Some sort of genetic engineering fanangling? Check. Blonde? Check. Blue eyed? Check. Master race? "We are going to win this war because we have the best men." The best man being some Aryan jock. Check. Running around with ridiculous shield? Check. Comical levels of patriotism not even found in films that set out to spoof the absurdly rabid patriotism displayed in Hollywood? U! S! A! U! S! A! Errr, I mean "Check". Like I said, I think he's about the worst comic book hero ever. I'll skip this one thanks.

At least it's the end of people saying it's the end of the world. I swear social networks are just an exercise in crowd sourced stupidity. If it could be weaponised it would be deadly. The Flesh was pretty good. Didn't really buy the whole "I'm the leader so I'm going to kill the Flesh" bit. It was a bit contrived imho. Everything was cool and people were getting along. There was no build up of tension, like there was with say, "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" it was just, "everyone is getting on and now we need to split the factions" a bit of deus ex machina and boom, conflict. I also don't buy that JenniferFlesh would just turn on the humans when she has obviously forged a strong bond with Rory. If these people are supposed to be the same as their Flesh counterparts, then it makes more sense that the leader chick of the flesh would be the one to strike back.

Ooops! Oh well, not sure why it was a secret anyways. Rumour has it he's to be the voice of Smaug. Will be interesting to see the two of them playing opposite each other in a different scenario.

I can't get behind Captain America. I think he, along with Superman is one of the worst comic book heroes ever. It's not really his fault, he just hasn't aged well. Running around with a star spangled shield is as trashy as it is lame, as is the name, "Team America" parodied it for a reason. Also, I hate the "weedy person is useless, be a jock or gtfo" message. Not to mention the somewhat uncomfortable idea of genetically engineering a blonde, blue eyed master race (but it's ok cos the good guys are doing it). Much as I've been enjoying the recent Marvel films, CA is one that I will definitely skip on.

I actually don't even want it for free. My interest was piqued, and then the game came out and my interest troughed.

Qualify as a Solicitor - In progress. Skydive - Possibly next year. Visit: Calabria, Northern (Turkish) Cyprus and East Asia (not all at once). Put me down for the Space thing too. Get on the executive board of a large videogame publisher (this is more likely than you might think...). Re-learn the Violin (I stopped playing when I was young and foolish). Learn Swedish. Don't die, ever. (This one is technically after I die should I fail in my previous aim) Swindle as much money out of HMRC as possible by clever inheritance tax avoidance (not evasion), my own interpretation of victory in death.

Final Fantasy... something. Most, if not all of them get about 200 hours out of me. As a franchise, it's devoured a worryingly large amount of my life.

You're in the Kotaku section... don't think many folk here have much nice to say about them.