ThunderPeel2001

I'm loving it! It just goes to show how much the world of GTA comes alive when there's a story left to tell (going back and doing stunt ramps just isn't anywhere near as much fun... the city feels dead once the main story is complete). The lead character is a moaning idiot (so far) but I'm loving being a biker... I even love the film grain (suits the "rough" story). The character animation/voice acting in the cut-scenes is even better than before, astoundingly. Plus there's a new episode of Republican Space Rangers, too All in all, I could keep buying new add-ons for GTAIV of this quality for quite some time

I had no idea you were such an SF fan... Did you pick up the HD Remix? If so, how do think it fared? I personally hated their previous XBLA port of Street Fighter (I'm sure it never used to be so insanely difficult), but I didn't pick up the HD Remix...

A quick peruse of reviews seems to suggest one thing: The changes made to the gameplay are an improvement... but they don't effect GTAIV, which is a shame because the lead character here is a lot less interesting and likeable than Niko, and as such, you don't care as much about the campaign.

It sounds pretty interesting... like a very separate game (a change in the visual style...??? why???). Does it affect the original GTA in any way? I found this cool trailer... looks awesome!

Tim makes a compelling argument He gets my vote.

Spoil sport

According to the Official Double Fine News Threat Level there is going to be some Brutal Legend news this month! Woo! Also: Jack Black is hosting Spike TV's annual Gaming Awards... and reveals that his favourite game of all time is Psychonauts!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast_VGA

So. Many. New. People... Must stay calm.

I'm [in] London and it's easy for me meet up... But what's this Hide and Seek thing? Edit: Fixed, although given what you just said... it sounds weirder...

I'll tell you exactly what it is: It felt like a technical exercise (the machinima creator) with a game tacked on simply because they're a games company. I would have much rather have preferred the game by itself and the machinima creator by itself (or not at all). It doesn't matter that they were both extremely polished, the game itself always felt like an afterthought. Not enough attention was given the gameplay and it just wasn't anywhere near as balanced or as enjoyable or Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park or Theme Hospital. In short: Putting the two things together (making you play the game to unlock things to use in the machinima creator/expecting you to spend hours making a short film only to get mediocre 'reviews' in the game itself) left you with two average halves instead of two complete wholes.

Yeah, it's more like 1992! Nice retro-graphics, though.

ebay?

Ow... So it's good then? Excellent stuff. I've got to pace myself with this stuff though, haven't I? I've still got The Wire 4 & 5 to watch. I was so ravenous for more Wire at the end of 3 that I nearly scared myself... If I kept going straight through to 5 without calming down again, I'd probably have a breakdown when 5 finished. I'm currently reading David Simon's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. Loving it so far, Simon is a great writer. Highly recommended.

Generation Kill? Is it any good? I've not watched it yet, but I've started taping it.

Sure do! And I'll fight any man who tries to tell me how "bad" Vista is...

I always go by this guide: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2008/09/guide-200809.ars It's probably due some minor tweaks now (it's dated Sept 08) but it's definitely a good guide... I run the following and have found BioShock, Oblivion and Fallout 3 to look fantastic and be perfectly playable... PROC: Intel E6600 Core2Duo 2.40GHz RAM: 4GB (4x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) MOBO: Gigabyte 965P-DS3P GFX: XFX 8800GTS PCI-E 320MB HD: 2x 400 Gb Seagate ST3400620AS Barracuda 7200.10 (RAID 1) CASE: Antec Sonata II

That better have been a joke, young man... How about the perennial: "Game over" (I wonder what the first game to use that phrase was?) "Oh no!" (pop) - Lemmings

*grumble* *grumble*

Totally I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. Saw Slumdog and yes, it was a great movie, but it felt a little contrived to me... Is this my expectations fucking things up?

Quite the opposite.

You know this actually seems like a sensible thing to pass, if you ask me. We've had it in Europe for decades and there's still plenty of cheap plastic shite around.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0663405/

Yeah, that's actually very probably true. I was "there", as it were. There's only three people that I remember where I was when I heard they died, and Bill Hicks is one of them. If you've not done so already, you should give Rant in E Minor a go.

The official ones that came out with the film look pretty decent quality to me (surprisingly so). UK: http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=38257