ThunderPeel2001

Whaddya mean you MOVED it?! I'M here waiting! It's not like I changed my plans today so I could make tonight or anything... *grumble* *grumble*

Well I didn't time it, but I can say: GTAIV now finishes loading *just* after the "lollypop girl" loading screen. That's one whole loading screen faster!

Spore: Let down. The Force Unleashed: Let down. Fallout 3: Good initial reactions, but still lots of people saying it's overrated. Mirror's Edge: Let down. Fable II: Solid but not earth breaking. Left 4 Dead: Same as above. Gears of War 2: Fucking rockin! Who could have guessed this is how it would turn out?

Good point! I also pay attention to the traffic light system, but completely forgot about it.

Excellent, thank you very much! Edit: Hmph Oh well, it can't hurt.

Lol!

Holy Christmas, that's fucking awful. Why even bother creating such a cool world? Does anyone else wonder if there was some guy with a brilliant idea who got steam-rolled by some idiotic exec?

Errr... Was it? I meant to put it in Idle Banter. It's hardly "Gaming" talk. Whoops!

It's just cheaper to fake it...

Looks like I'm not cynical enough... I hate the fact that the world is trying to make me more cynical

Cutting points and cgi Bah, I hate Activision.

That would explain the audio and visuals, sure (although video time-stretching would be noticeable due to the interlacing, wouldn't it? can't imagine they shot it on film or in hd).... BUT how do you explain the lights on the handle bar being in perfect sync with the pavement? Freaky.

I don't know, I guess they must do, but I've never heard any claims of the HD speeding up games. Hmmm Maybe they didn't mention the HD caching as a bonus because it's only for games you play a lot (I think).

They already do that. Some of the 12gb used for "system usage" is for caching files for commonly played games. That's why some Bioshock people were complaining that their game was slower after the patch... they needed to clear their hd cache of old files.

It's been a while, but can't you skip them by jumping around using the transit system or something?

Not at all

Well I took the plunge and upgraded to a 120gb drive*. (I just didn't want to have to faff around taking stuff apart and hoping I didn't lose everything.) It turned out Argos had the best price, oddly enough. Anyways, I LOVE being able to install my games on the HD. The 360 is SO much quieter and the games definitely run quicker, too (not lighteningly fast, but about 10% faster, I reckon, which is enough). I can't wait to get back to Mass Effect with reduced noise and loading time * (Next week: "Microsoft release new 500gb upgrade for the same price as their old 120gb HDDs!" )

If like intelligent, well-written adventure games, then I have to recommend Dave Gilbert... The Shivah The Blackwell Legacy Blackwell Unbound Also, there's a site video blog type thing called Bytejacker, which I've just been introduced to. It looks pretty professional, too. (Am I the only attracted to Erin Robinson?)

I wanna save the dragons... I am Space Harrier! (Wow, games really were for an incredibly niche/sf audience back then, weren't they?) As for "two-mega", could that be 2 Megabit? (As in the size of the cartridge?)

Yeah, I was kind of suspecting that it could just be a rushed demo. I still really want it to be good.

Hmmm, yeah, I think I got the voice wrong. There's something about it that irks me, but I find it hard to explain what. I played the demo again today, but that radio voice still bugs me. I think it's because the introduction is so absolutely, stunningly brilliant. It's like really good William Gibson. It hints at so much potential. A "runner" getting caught up in a struggle for the information that she's been entrusted to carry -- but it turns out to be some horrible conspiracy which ultimately ends up with her changing the oppressive society that everyone has gotten used to. (At least that's what I imagined should happen in the game.) A sort of cross between the dire Johnny Mnemonic and Serenity, set in a beautiful but sterile world. It could be wonderful. There's just SO much potential there, especially for someone with some real talent to make something interesting out of the characters and the world... But it all just fizzles out when the other main "character" is introduced: He's just so hopelessly banal and generic. Maybe someone will get an opportunity to make something decent out of it in a sequel? They're certainly pushing it at the moment, so presumably it will sell well enough.

Sorry, don't want to make a big stink, and I could be wrong, but I think you're talking rubbish. You admit to regularly using RottenTomatoes, but qualify that by saying you're different. You understand that you shouldn't take the score as being absolute, so that's ok. Other people, however, need to be educated. My problem with this is simple: What makes you so sure that there are masses of people who need "saving"? How do you know that people are only taking Metacritic into account and not being sensible about it? It sounds like it could be you simply projected your fears, when you might not actually have anything to worry about. If anything I think people should be educated to the attempted deliberate corruption of the scores of publishers, but trying to get them to realise that reviewer scores aren't the word of God... Well, who's to say they we all don't know that already? Chris's editorial, for example, is more of warning about publishers and the industry becoming too focussed on aggregate scores, and the news article you linked to in your original post seems to have come from a direct result of that. It would be a terrible thing if Metacritic became the Alexa for the gaming industry.

Heh! I posted about this very idea 18 months ago http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2007/06/gaming-review-scores-off.html

Not sure why you're focussing on Metacritic, it sounds to me like the whole reviewing system is fucked. Unscrupulous deals being set up between game publishers and review publishers. THAT'S what sucks like shit. Metacritic will show a "correct" aggregate score in a few days time, but they can't be blamed for people deliberately trying to undermine their stats. *shrugs*