Thrik

Not yet, friend. It isn't really that far off being launchable, but I'm going on holiday in a few days and have otherwise been busy with other projects so I've been reluctant to launch it. Once I get back though I'll be sorting it out, in time for E3.

As for the stealth, are any of you playing it on hard? I ask because the original games were literally a different experience on hard mode, with more enemies, keener senses (can see you from an entire battlefield away, rather than having some artificial distance limit), etc. If the normal mode is a bit simplistic I might be inclined to play it through on hard right away. As for the boss fight critique, I obviously can't defend the game because I haven't played it, but hasn't practically every boss fight in every MGS so far been totally OTT, action-packed, and generally insane? It's one of the series' better points!

I can't see them accomplishing that much with a third iteration to be honest. The DS Lite was definitely a huge part of the DS's overall success, making it more desirable to those who don't want to be seen carrying the aesthetic equivalent of a cow's rectum. But now they've done that, what value would there be from making it look just a little bit better, etc? I'm thinking most people who were going to get a DS will already have one due to the insane marketing push Nintendo's given it, and those who haven't probably won't be pushed over the edge by slightly bigger screens, a mildly refined design, and whatever else is rumoured. What I can see is something more like the GameBoy series' evolution, which is an actual new console generation that just happens to also play DS games via backwards compatibility.

Hang in there. Solid Snake would.

What about taking a great big handful of pollen and repeatedly rubbing it into your eyes every hour for a week? Guaranteed to fix it!

Still a good few weeks before I'll be able to play it.

Tom Cruise is a good actor. I approve of him almost as much as I approve of Scientology. :) :)

God man, reading about some of the diseases he mentioned like sleeping sickness (100% fatality rate if untreated and irreversible brain damage) and elephantiasis is pretty scary. Knowing such things are a bite away is unsettling, even if I can comfortably protected by distance. Highlights how weak and shit I really am, regardless of our health care advances.

Hahaha, brilliant. :~ I read the whole thing and... well, you just have to admire a man like that. Someone I was with last night had crazy eye issues. I thought she was crying but it was apparently just hay fever, which seemed weird to me as I only normally associate it with boiling summer days. It was more like 10:30pm after we'd been indoors for about three hours. Clearly the pollen count was so high it was saturating the air even into the night. Glad I don't have hayfever (touch wood). ¬

Anyone who hasn't played MGS3 really ought to if you managed to get any enjoyment out of its predecessors. This goes even if you never played MGS2, seeing as its a prequel. It stands head and shoulders above MGS2 as an overall experience in my opinion, grounded more in reality (and indeed the past, seeing as it's prequel). The cutscene/gameplay balance is also pretty much perfectly tuned, with cutscenes rarely overstaying their welcome or becoming boring. And the gameplay is fantastic, with huge dosages of indoor and outdoor action (including an MGS1-esque compound) and more depth to everything — particularly the Judo shit. The overall feel is more reminiscent to MGS1, in that you're in a massive, isolated place in the middle of nowhere with connection to the outside world hanging on by a thread. Granted, MGS2 had that atmosphere too, but I don't think they nailed it as well as they did in MGS1/MGS3. Perhaps even more so than MGS1, seeing as the game world is geographically massive.

I enjoy the cutscenes, and the gameplay in MGS3 was absolutely superb (as well as more plentiful). It's not like the gameplay stopped being great after MGS1. I think the cutscenes — while silly as hell — are a nice way to relax after a ridiculously hard gameplay sequence, and provide a good incentive to keep going (and believe me, you need some incentive when playing MGS on hard mode. ). They're a guilty pleasure, cheesy as a cow's arse but good enough to make you care about the characters.

Definitely my most-anticipated game of the year, and indeed this gaming generation (PC not included). From the reviews I've read, it delivers upon everything I expect from an MGS game and does fan service to the extreme (Fine as long as you're an existing MGS fan!). Everything from the plethora of old characters/locations to the super-length cutscenes turns me on, and seeing as we're talking about MGS the gameplay itself will almost certainly be fantastic too. Going on holiday on the 18th though, so I'll be waiting until after that before I play it. Clearly will be avoiding a lot of websites.

No, it was based on price and ping. Really, those are the only two things that truly matter. Everything else such as having full configuration control and the ability to upload maps is basically a given nowadays.

Yes, these did a pretty good TF2 server for me last year: http://www.inx-gaming.co.uk/ They're also very knowledgeable, which is always good. Results in some nice web-based administration stuff too.

Happy birthday! It is my birthday also, and exactly the same age!

Maybe the onset of summer.

I'd definitely say Planet Earth is the best documentary series I've ever seen. It really does feel epic, and truly captivates you with its unbelievable footage (How did they even get some of that stuff?!) and soundtrack. David Attenborough's narration also adds a real charm, something they removed from the US version — should be illegal! The concept of a nature documentary may sound boring, but it's really the absolute epitome of its kind. If there's only one nature documentary you watch between now and the day you die, I'd recommend you make sure it's Planet Earth. I'd agree that the footage seems like it'd be amazing on Blu-ray, considering how many detailed slow-motion scenes there are. I wish it was around on Blu-ray back when I first experienced it.

Heh, I liked Manny!

It's more likely they just mean an in-engine cutscene, which could very easily look as good as that because they can get clever with how they use the models. I suspect the cutscenes in the game will look at least as good as the trailer. Metal Gear Solid is the best example of pioneering such techniques, where even though it's in-engine they use super-detailed models for close-ups in the cutscenes, depth of field, etc. Everything is just carefully balanced to keep it smooth, whereas actual gameplay is more unpredictable so they have to drag everything down in detail to ensure constant smoothness.

Of course. I did speak to someone who works at Ubisoft about it when the rumour first surfaced and he alluded to the interviewee (Ancel?) saying too much before trying to worm out of what he'd said (ie: the whole preproduction thing). I suspect it was in full production all along and the whole preproduction thing was just a way of stopping people from taking it as an official statement/announcement or whatever. I really doubt it was only in preproduction several weeks ago if they not only pencilled it into Ubidays, but also created a fairly elaborate trailer.

I only discovered the other day that you can play similarly auto-generated missions when you're in a police car by bringing up the on-board computer and asking for local crimes. Pretty good fun activity.

Yeah, I'd say that aiming for any silly 30-hour achievements is just going to dilute the experience. GTA has always been about a balance between a massive playground and a structured series of missions. If you do nothing but use it as a playground you end up with Assassin's Creed and end up bored within hours; if you exclusively do missions, you'll get frustrated and fed up with the repetitive travelling. The only real way to play GTA is to do some missions, and if you get sick of continuously failing one you either do a mission for some other guy or just dick around for a bit. It's the ability — and almost necessity — of dividing your time between 'work' and 'play' that makes GTA what it is. I guess if you're the type of person who just cannot really enjoy an unstructured sandbox (plenty of such people out there), you may have difficulty enjoying GTA as much as some. But me... I can quite happily just go on various rampages, do side-tasks for incentives (friends and girlfriends largely have a tangible benefit), do a circuit around the city's train tracks, etc. Fun! I have no problem whatsoever with the mission travelling itself because I've played several GTA games where it's so much harder. The taxis in GTA4 are an excellent improvement — imagine not even having those! If nothing else, it's a strong but non-critical incentive for not dying. And I've only really failed two or three times in missions thus far, and even that's only some particularly tricky/long ones.

:tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:

Google Browser Sync is the best for syncing up Firefox instances IMO. It not only handles bookmarks to a bulletproof degree, but can also optionally deal with authentication, cookies, history, and tabs/windows. I use it for staying consistent between my work and home PCs, and hide it from the GUI so I never even know it's there. Ultra-

You can hear them making pigeon noises, but it's not very loud and you have to be close. I also thought there was a little tune that played, but that seemed to be a coincidence and was in fact just an ice cream truck. And yes, definitely a weird coincidence!