Ben

Nothing from that interview or from what I know of him suggests he was "exiled". As for the interview - his thoughts on game design are interesting and it's easy to see his hand in the design of a game like Uncharted, which demonstrated a balanced approach to level design and eloquently communicated the short, mid and long-distance goals he speaks of, to the player.

With the exception of a few like Geometry Wars, Space Giraffe and Fable most of those will probably be coming to PSN, including the 'coming up' titles. In terms of what else PSN has to offer as exclusive content: Super Stardust HD Fl0w Everyday Shooter Pixeljunk Racers Pixeljunk Monsters Pixeljunk Eden WarHawk (I class it as a PSN game, though others may disagree) Tekken DR Calling All Cars Elefunk Dark Mist The Last Guy Echochrome Coming: Wipeout HD Fat Princess Flower more Pixeljunk games a new LocoRoco

Cool - congrats

I don't normally do this kind of thing, but if you have a PS3 then you owe it to yourself to download the PixelJunk Eden demo (it's on the US store). Video here.

... Because Blizzard is not a competitor in the hardware market is it. It makes no difference to them or to MS if they call it the same thing. Whereas if Sony or Nintendo had a feature called "Achievements" it would obviously be negative from their point of view.

Hehe, well then isn't it obvious why they would want to differentiate by name? I mean, it's the same reason MS don't call their "Avatar's" Mii's. Competitors don't want to be seen to be copying from each other, even when it's obvious they are... in all but name.

What on earth are you talking about? Sony are using an achievement system: you perform specific tasks in the game and are rewarded for your accomplishment with a Trophy; in the same way you would unlock an achievement on 360. They are simply called "Trophies" to differentiate. This video explains exactly what trophies are and do. PS - Outside of the GameFAQ and IGN forum communities I'm pretty sure people have stopped using the $ symbol when writing MS. This happened around 2003, maybe 2004, i'm not sure... Wikipedia may know.

You're right about immersing yourself in it; everyone I know who's learned comprehensively has said that living in the country has speeded up and improved their learning. Whether you can learn just through listerning alone is another matter entirely. I can't say definitively (after all every individual learns slightly differently) but really, like most things, learning a language requires a balance and combination of approaches covering all the core elements: listening, writing, reading, and speaking. Dedication and commitment should be a given, but aside from that I'd suggest lessons with a tutor to provide structure, focus, guidance and feedback. Regardless of how many lessons you have the onus remains on you however, so again, immersion is key - practice as much as you can every day (i'm including weekends), with a mimimum (or average) of 2 hours study a day if you hope to become fluent. Listening won't be enough IMHO but will help you understand speech pattens/structures in conversational speech once you've learned some common words; but for practical understanding/fluency and the ability to actually speak and apply what you've listened to and learned you will need an extensive knowledge of vocab, which can be practiced with someone (again this is where having a tutor comes in handy). Anyway, to hear pretty straight/formal Japanese try out the Yomiuri podcasts - it covers current news and affairs in Japan (it's the site for The Daily Yomiuri, one of Japan's biggest papers).

Yes, simply create a new user and PSN ID, except set your location as America. Don't worry about filling in credit card details or anything (unless you actually want to purchase stuff from the US store, in which case the card details must be American).

Surprised no one has mentioned Echochrome yet. It's worth a look ginger.

Why have I become Nick? Oh what cruel and twisted fate befalls me!

No. The game remains a PS3 exclusive in Japan, it's being released on 360 in North America and Europe.

I'm one of those who picked it up while at GDC. It's a great time-waster (definitely more of a puzzle game than an adventure game); the art style is lovely and when combined with the characters the package has a certain warmth to it that does enough to obscure the fact that many of the the puzzles are quite disconnected and arbitrary, though no less fun for it really.

Fair enough, the two longer cutscenes pushed my patience and were frustrating, but I feel it was ultimately worth it for experiencing what the actual game play had to offer - which is really something; so you'd be missing out on that as well. Also, this being MGS the cutscenes are always "interactive" in some way, even if it's not actual playing. Very small non-spolier example: you can control the Mk.II to go around an area during the cutscene and discover hidden bonuses that help you in game play such as a spare battery that increases the amount of time you can use the Solid Eye.

On the whole they're not. There is one that is almost that long and another that's about an hour, but most of the cutscenes are "normal" by MGS standards (i.e. around 15 minutes long on average).

Most of the guys are in Brighton, but feel free to get in touch with me, Alex, Bob or Eljay when you're in London. Just PM one of us.

I'm busy learning a new langauge and playing MGS4. Though not at the same time.

Mine got here this morning:

The Blu-Ray version is definitely worth it; I watched the series with Alex and Lawrence and there were at least several instances in every episode when we were all genuinely amazed by the camera work/images captured. "But why the square head...?" combined with Attenborough's love affair with the Arctic are just examples of the charming (and oddly affecting) script and the narrative consistency of the series respectively. It's not just about the visuals. Attenborough and Olivier... Gods of Narration.

Teaser Trailer.

Please don't go down this road again. That's all i'm going to say.

It is true (was removed before because they broke embargo); here's the develop story and here is a video (poor quality off-screen capture) of Mad World.

For actual multiplayer I mostly play WarHawk, CoD4 and GTAIV at the moment (previously I played some GT5 and Ridge Racer but rarely do now). In terms of online (like high scores and stuff) I play Super Stardust and the PixelJunk games. Oh, of course I've also been on the MGO beta lately...

As far as I know none of us are (and never have been). Edit: Except for Dan apparently... who doesn't count ¬¬