Thrik

This thing is still going?

I... what.

The tomato sauce worked great, surprisingly nice once cooked in a saucepan for a while. Not enough of it though, very inefficient method I dare say. In other news, been looking forward to having bacon sandwiches for lunch, after getting a great deal on two big packs of bacon yesterday. Even skipped breakfast to save room for them. Just checked my fridge, no bacon. Wat. After tearing through every cupboard and bag I eventually found them right at the bottom of a bin since filled with disgusting shit, must have thrown them straight in after work because I was so tired. FFS man. Got to go out for lunch and everything now.

Just making some meatballs by hand and spaghetti. Had a good mouthful of a sample ball and they taste fantastic, so much better when it's your own concoction. Unfortunately I just realised I'm out of tomato sauce. FFS! So I'm currently attempting a ghetto meatball sauce comprised of tomato ketchup, milk, pepper, and oil.

I don't know what you're even disagreeing with here. Are you saying you don't think the Blu-ray specification will be adjusted in the future to include proper 48 FPS support, and that Blu-ray player and TV manufacturers won't acknowledge that by including support for the latest specification in their hardware? And that some manufacturers won't then roll out firmware updates that include the aforementioned support? Because I think that's exactly the way it's going go. I also think more films are going to go for HFR now The Hobbit has been a huge success. If you don't agree then I guess we'll just see over the next year or so.

What the Blu-ray specification supports is handled independently. All the manufacturers have to do is roll out the latest version of the specification to their devices, which they already do. Existing Blu-ray players should be fine in this regard so long as people make use of the firmware updates available to them (many are online-enabled so it's an absolute cinch). As you rightly point out, the real issue is the TVs. I suspect most manufacturers will be aware of the whole Hobbit hoopla and will throw in 48Hz support for future models. If the industry can motivate cinemas in places around the world to implement support for high frame rates, they'll certainly be working on TV manufacturers too. In fact Panasonic has already started supporting 48Hz. Of course older TVs are stuck, but I guess interpolation wouldn't be that bad in such cases and juddering is surely minimised by virtue of it being far less obvious due to the number of frames squeezed into every second.

There's a lot of clarification from Newell himself concerning this here: http://mobile.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852144/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box-future-of-gaming

That's not much of a problem, the PS3 can and has been updated numerous times to update Blu-ray capabilities and I'm pretty sure most Blu-ray plays have some form of online firmware update ability now. As for TVs, that is of course the question mark that will vary tremendously between people. One way I can test mine is to connect my laptop to it via HDMI and order the GPU to output 48Hz. I guess if the above doesn't work, a somewhat graceful fallback could be for the player to output at a refresh rate the TV can handle like 60Hz, and play the video at 48 FPS — just like what happens when gaming. No idea if all Blu-ray players could do this but a PC or the PS3 (if playing a ripped file on the HD) definitely could.

Backwards compatibility is going to be a huge mess unless some very careful planning is done. This is the first generation that's really gone all the way back through time to the earliest games, but that's only good for these consoles. Take the Wii U for example: to play the versions of Mario World and whatnot that were released for the Wii, you have to actually put the Wii U into Wii mode where it literally emulates the entire Wii operating system. Only then can you go through the Wii's own different store, get the games, and play them. So in a way, when you're playing Mario World on the Wii U you're using an emulator that's in turn running another emulator that's running Mario World. It's easy to imagine how as we go further down this line this could get very complicated. Really, each console manufacturer needs to abstract their shops somewhat and have each game show which systems it's compatible with, and then an ongoing effort will be needed to keep everything compatible with newer systems. Unless every future system can emulate each earlier one, which is unlikely because it's far from trivial to do while keeping performance high. Of course this is where platforms like the PC come into their own, as they can and do handle the above scenarios pretty well due to how flexible games are developed in terms of hardware and OS support. Where else can you play Mario Galaxy in 1080p?

Supporting XBLA games would have exactly the same requirements as supporting regular 360 games. Either the new console can emulate the way a 360 works or it can't. Of course that doesn't mean XBLA games can't individually be updated to also support the Xbox successor, but that's a completely different thing and you'd probably have to buy them again.

I think their target is future games more than older ones, re-establishing the PC as a major platform but on a new, free OS. Which makes it a completely different platform really, but I can't say I disapprove. That said, of course older games will continue to be ported over and they may even figure out some kind of insane emulation, I don't know.

The Steam box is definitely something I can get behind. There are definitely PC games I'd love to play, but I had to gut my gaming HTPC to keep my desktop machine alive some time ago, and also I really struggled with using a keyboard and mouse comfortable on the PC. What'd be great is something I can literally pick up and pop on my desk when I want to play keyboard/mouse games like Battlefield multiplayer, and then stick back next to the TV for gamepad games. I actually use my laptop in this way to a limited extent, but it's only powerful enough to run a SNES emulator. Still, I've been having a great time playing the Donkey Kong Country and Mario World games via a wireless PS3 controller (which it turns out can be connected seamlessly to a PC via Bluetooth with relatively little pain). You know what? I should try Grim Fandango — does it have any gamepad support though?

Me too. My Cineworld had just implemented IMAX for The Hobbit, but unless you went 3D you were stuck with 24 FPS which as I noted above didn't seem to gel quite right with how the film was shot. BTW does anyone know how this is going to play out once we have this on Blu-ray? I have a few-year-old VIERA and have no idea whether or not it can cope with high frame rates, although I do remember some 100Hz bollocks on the box when I bought it. Also does Blu-ray as a specification even allow for it? Hopefully so, and that the PS3 has whatever version of the specification is needed to play it properly.

In all seriousness though, every PlayStation I've bought thus far was prompted by a new Metal Gear Solid game. I got a PS1 for MGS1, a PS2 for MGS2, another PS2 after selling my first one for MGS3, and then a PS4 for MGS4. I can't remember why I got a 360, though. I think I just fancied one because a lot of games released on both had better 360 versions, and there were a few exclusives like Fable 2 that I really wanted. So yeah, it's always about the games for me. The moment a game I want is released, the consoles will be on my lap for a sweet, sweet session within days.

I will buy them both regardless for I am a TWAT.

They probably shouldn't have bothered with the collectible shit. It's badly implemented and was probably literally just done so there was more to the game than the bosses, to please testers or publishers or some shit. For guys like you who are compelled to collect it's pretty much a death sentence for your enjoyment of the game. If you stick to the colossi all that crap isn't quite so blatant and the game's strengths somewhat balance out. Not that I finished it, I got bored. In fact, collectible shit is often one of the laziest and shittiest parts of any game. You should break that habit unless you really, really like a game.

Saw it. I went in with tempered expectations after seeing the comments about it being a bit weirdly paced and stuff, and I can honestly say that it delighted me to watch. It's the same Middle Earth we all loved in Lord of the Rings, but from a completely different perspective. For those who didn't read the books like me it's great discovering more about characters like Gandalf and the other wizards I had very little idea even existed, as well as helping to provide a bit of foundation for the LOTR to sit on (although I suspect some of this was exaggerated beyond what the book described). Seeing some old characters return was simply lovely. I knew of some, not of others — highly recommended to go in as blind as possible so you can enjoy the same surprises. And all the new cast members are superb, the Dwarf leader dude is a terrific actor who just 5 or so years ago only really featured in shitty UK dramas. What a career break that he totally deserves. Generally great acting all round though, and I was genuinely taken aback to see so much performance from beastly creatures I just assumed were too unintelligent to speak. Great film, but don't go in expecting a standalone epic masterpiece like LOTR. The Hobbit simply isn't a story that grand in scope, although what happens is still awesome. I'd say if anything it's a movie that gives the smaller aspects of Middle Earth more life, the smaller battles and creatures that go unnoticed in the grand world-ending dramatics of LOTR. On a technical note, when I first started watching it I was really distracted by the slow pans of Middle Earth's landscapes. I was watching in a regular 24 FPS 2D cinema screen, and it seemed like something was off with the pans — I couldn't focus my eyes on them properly. Maybe it's because the shutter speed used for shooting is different when shooting at 48 FPS, so when you half the frame rate you end up with a bit of a mess? Or maybe I just wasn't used to it, I don't know. I can't remember it bothering me later in the film so maybe it was just that.

That song alone now puts me 100% in the mood to watch this.

Oh OK then, his woman. It's been a while so I can't remember if it was clarified whether she actually was his woman or simply took on the role.

She was considered by Volgon, Ocelot, etc to be his wife— they say as such in the helicopter cutscenes where she's introduced. It's been a while so I can't remember if it was clarified whether she actually was his wife or simply took on the role.

Ah, right. No doubt, SotC does a far better job with the concept. It's still an interesting insight into how such gameplay can work with beefier hardware, but I think ICO would do a far better job. Somehow I think they're more into making something totally new each time, though. Or just nothing at all.

Or you could just write down your feelings after killing each one for later use.

More like 30 for us, and I know someone who took 50 to get through the fucker. In terms of value for money you can't complain, it has so much content and a lot of publishers would hold a lot of it back for DLC. It must have taken so long to produce all the assets for that game — every time you think there can't possibly be much more, you realise a seemingly small level is packed with complicated, long puzzles and shit. It's great yet simultaneously makes an argument for keeping games short and sweet. Do you mean the Castlevania titans? I found them really bloody hard, apart from the flying one. I'm not exactly good at this kind of thing, though!

My girlfriend finally finished Castlevania: Lords of Shadow this weekend. Holy shit, what a long-winded game. It did have a sweet ending to compensate the unbelievable frustration the game doles out, though. Also it has enough absolutely brilliant moments to leave a good impression overall. Anyway, the relevant part: that game is basically a mish-mash of the best parts of lots of other games, and the end result is pretty sweet so long as you don't mind a game so hard you'll be driven towards throwing yourself out the nearest window. One blatant inspiration is Shadow of the Colossus: several times you have to face 'titans', which are suspiciously Colossus-esque right down to the numerous pressure points you have to repeatedly stab, the relatively freeform way of getting onto them and scaling them, and just the overall presentation. There's also the variety of ground-based and flying beasts, and the music is terrific. Oh, and what's the theme of the game? Bringing your fucking girlfriend back from the dead. It's only a small part of the game really but it's an interesting glimpse of what a current-gen SotC might feel like. This game is incidentally one of the most lavishly-produced and graphically impressive of this whole generation, in the same way a new Studio ICO game might be. God I wish they'd put something new out.

And you thought David Cage's scenes were bad.