Griddlelol

Oh yeah, you did. I didn't meant to take what you said out of context. I completely agree with the negative points you brought up. The story kinda faded away for me as I skipped every cut scene or went and made a cup of tea if I couldn't. The fact that the enemies disappeared was my most hated aspect of it. The world felt more empty and more boring each time I progressed. It made me feel like progression was a bad thing. Whereas in FC2, there's constantly something to do - which surprisingly people felt was a bad thing. I guess there's no pleasing gamers.

Sorry! It does sort of look like that. I wish there was a 2, such a fun game.

I've never had the Steam emails work. I've checked the setting 100 times, but never get an update if something I want goes on sale.

Indeed! That's pretty good news. The more videos I watch for these things the more I get interested, despite my initial reaction of I think it's something about the sheer level of immersion you can get in these things that interests me more than anything else. Plus I find space horrifying so I get a small adrenaline rush whenever I play a space sim. I just hope they don't end up being grossly expensive, or require microtransactions to play.

Maybe I'm confusing dates up! I thought No Man's Sky was estimated for 2015. Looks like Star Citizen is way off though!

How worrying is it for these game creators that Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky are all coming out fairly soon? I'm aware they're all quite different games, but to the casual onlooker they all look like space sims. Is that an issue the devs are concerned about? Or are SC and ED content to appeal to that core audience while No Man's Sky will pick up the console crowd?

Damn, the vita games don't interest me, but I was going to get Towerfall and Strider when I finally get around to purchasing the PS4 for Destiny. A side point, has anyone in the UK noticed that the white PS4 Destiny bundle isn't available on Amazon? It's in GAME, but I hate that store and would really rather avoid purchasing anything from there. We also got Muramasa 2 months ago so that's understandable. Plus I've still not finished Dragon's Crown, so a month of no interesting games is fine by me.

I just got my deposit back from my previous place, plus a £100 rebate. It adds up to the exact amount for a PS4 Destiny bundle.

Bleh, I'd quite like Wolfenstein but my backlog is ridiculous now. So many games that I've 75% finished or just started. It's a little stressful! I need some time to just play. Damn life gets in the way of gaming. I refuse to join the Quitters' Club for games I enjoy and want to finish. I got Chaos Theory for the PC but man does it suck to control. You have to map all the buttons for a controller (if I remember correctly) but it doesn't tell you what the buttons do.

Both situations could be dealt with by the break/reverse button that's already included. I dunno, your little story made me think that it was just a bit pointless. I suppose it feels more like you're playing the game if you actually have to press the button to go, despite it being unnecessary.

That's a really cool story. BigJKO, you got me thinking: why on earth is there an accelerate button in MK8? It's pointless. You never have a reason to let go.

Cool, thanks for the ideas. I forgot to consider Wii games too! The only one I won't touch is Rayman. I just loathe that character, he looks so freaky and gross.

Can anyone recommend a game friendly to people who don't play a lot of games? My girlfriend has taken an interest in the wiiu and mario kart. She tried 3d world but couldn't get past the 3d platforming. Are there any more "newb" friendly coop games?

I would be interested in that! Not sure when I'll get chance though - my work is kicking my ass and will be until August. Maybe add me on Steam and if the planets align coop will ensue. Never done coop before so it should be cool! Steam ID is Griddleok or Griddlelol. I forget which one.

I'm sure there is, or was a band called Lemon Party playing in a garage at some point though.

I like how you're thinking but it's not entirely true. The reality is that sprinting (and therefore higher heart rates) doesn't mean you only burn sugar, nor is the reverse true. Both versions of training are highly effective for weight loss. A number of studies have shown that interval training - i.e. sprinting and higher heart rate - can cause changes in overall fat metabolism vs sugar metabolism after short periods of training (http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439). So in this study, 2 weeks of continual interval training resulted in the subjects having increased fat oxidation during the high heart rate exercise. The downside of this experiment is that they didn't directly compare it to steady state, however these women in the study were active so it's likely they would already be partaking in such activities. Burning off sugar reserves isn't a bad thing either. That sugar must be replaced, it is always replaced and some of the replacement comes from fat, but also diet. Replacing the sugar reserves from your diet means that sugar is not being metabolised into fat. There's also the post-exercise oxygen consumption to think about. The closer you train to your maximal ability, the larger the increase in metabolism is once you finish. While jogging for 30 minutes may burn more calories in the time spent training than sprinting for 6 minutes, the sprinting increases your metabolism much more, so you'll have a higher resting metabolism for I believe around 24 hours, which in turn is superior to the jogging. Interval training also has been shown to have similar effects on lung capacity and heart health as steady state training. My rant is not to say "Interval is better than steady state" because that's false. There hasn't (and I seriously doubt ever will be) empirical data to say which one is more efficient. I expect it entirely depends on the person. I find sprints are better, but that's because I enjoy them and I'm more likely to go out and do 15 minutes of sprinting as opposed to 45 minutes of jogging. I just wanted to point out that one type of exercise is not superior to the other. Also I have a bias - humans evolved as long distance running animals. We'd hunt by grouping up and chasing one animal until exhaustion. Most hunters hunt by rapid attacks, and thus most prey evolved to get away from rapid attacks, however humans could not possibly catch up with an antelope, but they could run it down until it trips or they got close enough to hurl a spear. It seems unlikely to me that long distance running burns as many calories as people make out. It doesn't make sense that a group of people would go hunting and expend ~500 calories each to kill an animal that they then have to share with those back at the settlement. Whereas sprinting and such things were done in times of fear and danger, where energy expenditure isn't taken into consideration by evolution. I'm probably thinking about it too much though!

Didn't you basically describe what a good game is right there?

Shovel Knight looks great! I've been following it for ages, and I'm really disappointed that it's been delayed for Europe.

I got to admit, I didn't try selling my own stuff to buy others, that is pretty fast, depending on whether they sell or not. The selling is pretty well designed to be streamlined. Going on the forums is what I meant would be a pain in the ass. I assumed that's how you'd sell them!

So to get cards past the few that drop, you basically have to sell and or trade cards for a different game... That seems like a massive pain in the ass to me. Also something about booster packs that isn't explained at all...

I liked Lost Izalith bosses, sure the end boss was gimmicky and boring, but not unfair. Also, I loved the gaping dragon fight! Probably one of my favourite in the game. Still, I finally got my controller fix so I'll be playing DS2 this week

Yeah I don't benefit from free cards. I don't know or care about how to "level up my steam" I just like cheap games.

Curious. I heard the exact opposite. What bosses do you consider to be unfair in DS1? I found all of them to be well made and constantly gave me the feeling that any time I died was due to my failure. Except the Capra Daemon of course, but 1 bad boss out of so many is pretty good.

Thank you! This is really great. I've only listened to a couple while I'm at work, but I like his voice and the subject matter is fantastic. I dislike how he says "both" but that's just how many Americans say it, and doesn't detract from the quality, just makes me smile when I hear it. Edit: Decided to add one if I'm going to take one: The Guardian's Science Weekly Podcast. While I don't listen to it any more, it's very informative, they have great guests and range from layman's chatter to in depth scientific talk. My issue with it is that it required me to think. Something that I can't do while I'm at work. I have to concentrate, but when I used to have an inane job, I loved it. It got my brain going and kept me alert. The host is pretty good too: Alock Jha. He seems to know what he's talking about, without being a specialist in any area.

Crap, I missed this part! Yeah I miss it. I have it up on the game pad all the time, but I hate looking down to check who's at what position. Importantly the game pad also tells you what weapon they have, which is incredibly useful information, so I think it's kinda balanced that you need to look down, although unfair on anyone who's not using the game pad. I do have those occasional Far Cry 2 moments where, I'm looking at the map then look up only to see myself flying off an edge or about to crash into something. Pretty hilarious. Interestingly, my girlfriend's flat mate brought home some friends at 12 am and played mario kart while her and I slept. That has never happened with any other game, and just shows the strong draw of that particular thing. I dunno, I found that astounding that 3 non-gamers cut their drinking time short to play a game none have played since the N64 era. I have a terrible obsession at the moment of trying to work out which is the best kart and character combination. I'm sure there's a table that someone's worked out already, but I know if I look at it I'll ruin the game for everyone I play with.