Thrik

Erm sorry, I actually meant to include 3D in that statement; my general line of thought was basically "not like EMI's 3D". As for Twin Snakes, I personally think a new player would be far better off playing it than MGS1 as the more exciting cutscenes, re-done soundtrack and reasonably modern graphics make the game so much more enjoyable and also comparable to a game released today. It's basically what MGS1 would have been had it been developed for 2003 rather than 1998 or whatever; all the charm, storyline, game world, and even the script is 100% intact so you'll be getting the full MGS1 experience except with it being more contemporary. Of course I've no issue with actually playing MGS1 as it was indeed an awesome game and like most I was a huge fan of it when it came out, but for a new player I'd definitely recommend Twin Snakes simply because they won't be offended by the pixellated graphics and not-quite-as-elaborate cutscenes (which take up loads of time regardless). BTW Dan or anyone else who's bothered, here's a good YouTube video that shows the first area of Twin Snakes; unlike the official trailer it doesn't just focus on the cut-scene action sequences and actually shows the codec and atmosphere stuff which is what really makes an MGS game, and might sway you one of two ways regarding the decision of trying it out as it pretty much conveys the tone of the whole game (though there is hardcore action ahead, don't get me wrong) I'm really in the mood for some Twin Snakes but my dickhead friend still has it borrowed. Clearly a drive-by shooting and pick-up will be needed this week. You can probably get it pre-owned for £5 or £10 like I did from GameStation by the way.

Yeah, I definitely need to get those bastards watched again. Certain parts of that really hit the spot in reminding me how awesome they were (eg: Arnie walking out the door in slow motion with the shotgun before some major slaughtering). I really like these as they kind of blend my nostalgic memories together, giving me a quick dose of both classics in two bite-size portions. Speaking of Terminator, I've just realised that I can hardly remember anything at all about the third film. Was it really that amazingly unmemorable or was I just a bit sleepy at the time?

Heh! Man, you just reminded me I randomly bought that about a week ago after noticing the 6-page Consolevania interview. It looked pretty good and had photos of them passed out over toilets. I need to stop buying magazines. I've got like two Edges and two Games™s that I've not started reading, not to mention a few magazines I got in the US like Electronic Gaming Monthly. I love reading them yet never seem to remember to bother. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Speaking of US magazines, are they all so thin? I picked up a whole bunch from a number of themes and they were all about a third as thick as the ones here, yet not significantly cheaper (about £1). Must just be something you're used to over there if so.

The whole morality thing has almost limitless potential but I think at this stage we're far from having a game where every situation in every area can be approached in so many different ways. I honestly bet the game designers didn't even think of trying that teddy thing, and as long as we've got game designers who always have to be one step ahead of the entire audience's imaginations we've got a problem. There'll probably be plenty of situations that can be approached quite cleverly in the game (there certainly were in Black & White), but they'll only be the ones the designers specifically thought of. The only two ways I can think of to combat this effectively are either magical, awesome artificial intelligence (heh) or to expose the game to a huge group of testers in the more conceptual stage where they get to think of every possible approach to each situation separately.

If you call describing exactly what happened attacking you then I'm not surprised you're confused -- I didn't. I can't actually remember whether or not Spaff's post implied that you were in on the decision as it's clearly been deleted. I just assumed you were as the given reason for the thread being closed was that you and he had discussed it and the conclusion was he's "twatty". Is it much of a stretch to assume you were in on the decision to then close the thread? Is it balls. If you call that assuming everything Spaff does involves you then you must have some kind of pre-existing insecurity in that area, because I don't, and as far as I'm aware have never done anything that could be perceived as such in the past. And to clear up the whole label thing you take issue with, I referred to you as his girlfriend to emphasise the cliquey tone to the thread's closure. The reason I'm wasting my time complaining about this is because it was a fucking stupid decision and I'd prefer that, seeing as I plan to continue posting here, it didn't happen again. A short-term investment for long-term benefit, if you will. Just to clarify, I don't have any personal issues with you and Spaff, and I wasn't trying to be condescending by not using your name. I just think the decision itself was shit, anti-community, and kind of insulting; by making this clear, Spaff may become a better admin.

Yeah, brilliant. I had a fairly good post typed out this morning that actually offered some fresh perspective and I honestly believe would have reduced the hostility towards Molyneux significantly, but was hit with a "This thread has been closed" message. Thinking some flaming had occurred while I was in the posting screen I quickly checked the thread to see what'd happened, but it turned out Spaff and his girlfriend had just discussed it the night before and decided the rest of us no longer needed to bother. That's just in case anyone else was confused as the thread's now been reopened and the fairly pathetic explanation for closing it removed (the only person I noticed behaving remotely out of control was Yufster).

That's only on newer games though, right? If not there must be some serious difference between Nottingham and Mansfield, which is where I live.

NTL (now Virgin) has always been extremely good for gaming in my experience, being both fast and stable; however, the overall speeds of web browsing and downloading leave a lot to be desired, and you occasionally get weird web errors like DNS being wrecked, resulting in lots of sites being inaccessible. Back on the Half-Life 1 engine I used to seriously get a ping of 12 at all times and sometimes as low as 8 on pretty much any UK server, although they were lowest on Jolt. Newer games have pushed that up somewhat, but it was still almost always below 50 in Battlefield 2. I generally have the lowest ping on any server in any game when I look at the player list whatever the case, and that was back on their 2mbps connection (I'm on 4mbps now). On the other hand, I get a shit 22kB/s upload speed for uploads in comparison to my 450kB/s or whatever for downloading. For general browsing I can't really complain, but being a professional web developer you can probably imagine the frustration dealing with such a wank speed brings. I would move to one of the many, many BT-line-using ISPs out there like Be There, but this house doesn't have a fucking BT line. What kind of house doesn't have a BT line, you ask? One with a father in it who, when asked specifically shortly after the Diamond Cable buy-out if he'd like one reinstalling for free after a street-wide reinstallation, said "No thanks, we have NTL". LOL!! :tup:

Ooooooooh!

Yeah, totally. I've tried playing an FPS at distance on my 24 inch monitor before (with a wireless combo) and it just doesn't feel right at all. FPS games feel better when you're a proper distance away to reasonably imagine that the arm on the screen is your own; if you're much further away, it just feels... incorrect. This same issue plagues all console FPS games of course as the whole concept is you're in the head of the character (possibly why Gears of War seems so grounded and like you're in the world as it's third-person), but it seems to be less of an issue with pads as you inherently don't aim around as much with those anyway. I still don't think they feel remotely right though and can't completely enjoy playing a console FPS after playing them on the PC for well over a decade.

Heh, that's another good point I'd forgotten about Dan. I did actually love the GUI-less interface in The Movies and thought they almost got it spot on. When you play something like RollerCoaster Tycoon and other similar games with immensely complex menus it makes you really appreciate the fact that Lionhead had a damn good idea/point there. I don't think The Movies did fantastically well, did it? I hope that doesn't mean the progression Lionhead made with top-down gaming interfaces there was lost. I don't want to get Supreme Commander and C&C 3 (I've played neither) plus whatever RTS/management games come out in the future and find they have shit, complex, unintuitive interfaces. But that's just another good example of the stuff Lionhead have come up with. And while none of us know just how much input Molyneux has on all the ideas, considering his think tanking of the past it's probably quite a lot. He deserves respect, even if he does need to keep his gob shut a bit more when it comes to discussing his games (which I genuinely think he does out of passion and a desire to share, not to cause hype). Good post Ginger, you're right when it comes to him hyping up smaller features in his gamer. I'd much rather discover those things myself, although in most of them I have as I tend to ignore and not be affected by game hype in general. Edit: I forgot how excellent the building interface/technology in Black & White 2 was too.

I have to agree, every video I've seen of him being interviewed/grilled has shown him as a calm and passionate person -- certainly not arrogant.

I only really even became aware of his whole hyping thing a few years ago around Fable's release. Before that I still had a great respect for him and indeed loved playing the likes of Theme Park a decade earlier, which was one of my all-time favourites and was indeed superb. I also loved Black & White. He's not just hit legend status by talking bollocks over a few recent years Yufster; he developed the majority of his fans by actually releasing (and programming, in earlier years) great games. So uh, to summarise, most people like Peter Molyneux because he's done a lot of fucking good stuff throughout his career regardless of the disappointments his recent hyping has caused. And his hyping of recent years has only really hit the mainstream media because he became so well respected before that; if it were just some random cock who's never made any great games at Crytek nobody'd care.

I admire Molyneux's constant desire and efforts to take games to new heights. While his chat has led to disappointments in the past, only a smoked cock would say he's done nothing for the industry and hasn't cranked out some superb games. I see nothing wrong with the article you linked to Thunderpeel. He's trying to bring emotion into games in a way that other mediums such as films can't really do, yet games might just have a chance of doing one day. His ideas may be way ahead of their time, but they're sound. Just remember that everything he dreams of probably won't actually make it into his next game and you'll be fine

Awesome, glad you liked it. A while on from finishing the game, my head is still packed with nothing but good memories and I can't wait until I get around to replaying it with the added knowledge of things I learnt throughout the first time (which went on right up until the end, pretty much). The boss fights remain really awesome to think about -- quite possibly amongst the most memorable in any game ever, although the previous two MGS games had brilliant ones too. I did find them a bit frustrating as it's quite difficult getting a strategy for each one down, but all my mind really remembers is the awesomeness of the atmosphere, presentation, voice acting, music, writing and general feel. I'm definitely going to replay the first two before replaying MGS3 and then eventually MGS4 though. Haven't done so in ages! Dan, if you really liked MGS3 then you'll probably still enjoy MGS1 and MGS2 almost as much. Even though the gameplay is slightly devolved (although it'd look exactly the same to a casual observer), they still have the superb presentation and atmosphere that MGS3 is packed with. They have a different tone and feel, but that 'MGS touch' that makes people love the series so much is always on top form. Just make sure you get the GameCube remake of MGS1 (Twin Snakes) rather than the original PS1 version. Some dick purists slate it, but it's really just exactly the same game but with more gameplay mechanics introduced (taken from MGS2), much better graphics, and a redone soundtrack. Only somebody who played the original and is loyal to it being completely perfect and not in need of adjustment would seriously criticise it, somewhat akin to how many people'd react to a remake of Monkey Island 1 with excellent, stylised graphics but otherwise the same game.

Lol! I can't believe they seriously called it that. Ingenious!

Be silent Ginger, you inadequate sledgehammer. I've casually used that phrase for years toblix for it is a common British phrase. It wasn't the controversial rhyming variant.

Speaking of the Wii, I just finally got a fucking Wii after months of failures. :tup: Weekend o' Zelda, more like.

Yeah, why not admit to it? The PS2 is a fantastic console and I've now discovered that it pretty much has the best games of the last generation apart from several GameCubeisms. I recommend picking up a miniature PS2 like I did and grabbing some cheap or second hand games. The PS3 is on the other hand a long way from proving itself. Of course if MGS4 is exclusive I'll inevitably end up getting one anyway.

In completely unrelated news to everything discussed previously in this thread, I completely finished MGS3 today. Goooood God what a game. I spent my whole train journey to work this morning thinking about the many facets of awesomeness to the game. I think I can honestly say it's my favourite in the series. Although MGS1 and MGS2 were great, their storylines and characters seem kind of small in the grand scheme of things in comparison to MGS3. MGS3 on the other hand goes all into the foundations of the Metal Gears, the Patriots, Snake himself, and pretty much everything that matters later in the time line. The gameplay is just spot on too. MGS4 will have to be an absolute corker to outdo it.

I'm surprised you feel that way, n0wak. I really like the control WordPress's template system gives me, and I've never had any problems navigating it at all. Perhaps you're making it a bit too hard for yourself by trying to edit the rather complex default theme? It's far, far easier if you grab the blank WordPress theme which just contains some empty divs and the bare bone PHP, or perhaps just get the PHP includes from from the online pot o' tags and put them into 100% custom built HTML yourself. If you really do know HTML and PHP then I seriously can't see how you'd find it difficult to use. What's the better alternative to having HTML and CSS exactly how you want it with PHP tags (though it's not exactly PHP in the sense most would assume; they're just pre-set tags) used to put content in the appropriate places? I've used no end of theme systems in different scripts over the years and none are better than the 100% control WordPress offers. Anything else would surely be restrictive, which is exactly why WordPress hasn't gone down that route. I arse with HTML and CSS (often not written by myself) all day for a living though so maybe I'm just used to looking at hieroglyphic code and working out what is where.

Yeah, I just got out MGS2 seeing as I had to know whether or not that move existed and the CQC is a lot more basic in comparison. There's basically no dedicated CQC button (circle in MGS3) as grabs are done with square, and when he grabs them in MGS2 he literally just puts his arms around their neck rather than the elaborate animations in MGS3. I reckon it'll be weird to shift to a less controllable camera and everything when I replay Twin Snakes and MGS2 soonish, and Snake seems a lot lighter in MGS2 (but as a trade-off guards don't seem to notice you running behind them); they really got the CQC and stuff down in MGS3. I hope it evolves similarly gracefully into MGS4. I love this series. ¬

Yeah, I saw it in some video and I was well pissed off because not only is it an unbelievably useful move (as long as nobody's watching), but it looks about as cool as it gets -- especially if you grab the enemy while he's doing something other than just standing still (like the middle-of-kick scenario I mentioned). Perfect when showing the game to someone! Check this out and skip to 1:30 for an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xds_XVhg0e0 I don't know if they used some kind of procedural animation or what, but he seems to grab them perfectly and realistically no matter what, sometimes using two hands if necessary. Bloody MGS.

If you have any kind of server hosting capability, I'd go with downloadable WordPress where you've got a choice from a tonne of plug-ins and a ridiculous amount of themes, with creating new ones easy as pie if you know HTML. If you don't have server hosting capability, I'd go with hosted WordPress because WordPress has a superb administration system that is nice to use. The visual rich editor is now great and it's just a superb system. If you really value the community aspect of LiveJournal and stuff (ie: your real life friends probably have one) then I suppose you'd be better off with them, but I'd personally rather craft a new audience than just have people who know me posting bollocks on the blog. WordPress is a bit more of a separate thing, comparable to a CMS (and in fact has the capability to easily become one), while LJ seems more focused on the friends thing. Kind of like MySpace.

Incidentally Miffy, I only realised when towards the end of the game (approaching the hanger for some C3ing) that you could do that "grab the enemy's head and drop him to the ground, knocking him out instantaneously" thing. Was this a new addition for MGS3 or was it in the others too? Because it's a fucking great move, and they managed to make it look incredibly fluid considering it can kick in while the enemy's going any animation (I got Volgin in the middle of a head-height kick -- Snake grabbed his leg and everything before dropping him).