ThunderPeel2001

Hmph. I tried the demo on my kickass PC and it could only run the game in MEDIUM graphics settings with no AA Considering that the graphics is all that people seem to be talking about, it confuses me that hardly anyone will be able to see them?! The graphics didn't even look that spectacular to me. Nice. Detailed. But amazing? Hmmm. Seems to me that it's just "throw it all in, don't worry about trying to steamline it, it's too complicated. We'll just tell everyone that the slow running of the game is a 'feature' of the 'amazing' graphics". Just lazy? I know it sounds weird, but playing BioShock at max everything was a truly beautiful experience. Even Mass Effect on my 360 looks superb and is mostly beautiful. But I'm not sure what Crysis is adding by making everything so insanely detailed that 90% of computers can't even play it with High (nevermind Very High) graphic detail... It reminds me of the pointlessness of Alien Breed 3D II on the Amiga. What's going on? Did I miss something? Can ANYONE play this game with its "intended" graphical settings without needing a Quad SLI based computer?! * My specs are: Intel E6600 Core2Duo 2.40GHz 4GB (4x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP Gigabyte 965P-DS3 XFX 8800GTS PCI-E 320MB Surely this is good enough?

Uh, no. It's all media. Popular media exists to sell us things and is sponsored by, or has a relationship to, advertising.

Geeks are cool

Er, yes... surely it come from root? I've always thought that... from way back when people used to say 'root!'. It's the same as saying 'owned'... or 'pwned'.

I remember reading about the "no interruptions" thing, but really there are sections that stop and load (and way back when, for not an inconsiderable amount of time) and it did feel "level based" to me. Ah, well.

Half-Life and I have never had a good relationship. The first one was hyped beyond belief. "So immersive", "technically impressive", "unbelievably interactive", "non stop excitement", "the best game ever made", "flawless" etc. I bought it and was almost immediately... horribly let down. The sameness. No characters (the same two or three characters you come across). No interactivity (make the microwave explode, open lockers, use soda machines!). Nice set pieces, but lots (and lots and LOTS) of corridors and crates and outside: fake looking scenery. I enjoyed the soldier's AI, though. I persevered. I played and completed because I felt as though I "should" love it. But really I never completely enjoyed myself: Hype had ruined it for me. HL2: I decided again to give it another try. Valve had come on in leaps and bounds since I last visited the universe. The polish was so bright the game practically shined... Amazing set pieces, too. Got up to the bit where I expect zombies were about to attack and stopped playing, though. I'm not a twitch gamer, I've decided, and I generally dislike feeling tense while I'm playing a game. I just don't think HL is for me.

Good call. I'll give it a shot

Yes, they are unbelievably dire. One that springs to mind is "Never think you're the first person to wear all black on stage", or even worse, "We're an angry band, but that doesn't mean we don't like peace". Amazingly, GH2's lines still make me smirk

It's not just enthusiast based websites, it's ALL media. I heard of someone who wrote a brilliant article on why certain cosmetic products were a load of crap. Some of the said products were advertised in the magazine, so the umbrella company (which was huge) pulled ALL their ads from the next issue (related or not). The hit was so big that the journalist "left" (not officially fired) and the ads came back. It's a tentative balance and if you're reliant on advertiser's money, there's no easy solution. You have to be honest (for your readership), but you can't be TOO honest... or you can, but you'd risk putting your business and livelihood at risk. Amiga Power was pretty damn brave in its day. It pissed off Team 17 so much they took AP to court for their "unfairly" bad reviews. Of course, I respect honesty and integrity and I don't think you should ever (EVER!) be able to buy a good review of anything... but these "Official" magazines keep going somehow, so I guess I'm in a minority?

Youch. I think I might have to give this one a miss. I don't care how good the graphics are (and I've probably got a rig that could handle them, too) if the gameplay is average. I LOVED BioShock. I LOVED Deux Ex. I don't think I'd be interested in playing something that paled so badly in comparison. I feel that I'm having a similar sort of experience with Mass Effect now, although thankfully it's not that bad and IS quite immersing.

Lol! Because I love PoP. I've played and completed PoP1, and I've played and got stuck on PoP2 (add that to the backlog). Before I played Sands of Time, I wanted to check out PoP3D, especially as it's still a Jordon Mechner game and it actually got mostly decent reviews.

Just thought of some more: X-Wing Alliance (too hard!) Company of Heroes... had a nice box, but boring gameplay - should probably give it another go Prince of Persia 3D Prince of Persia: Sands of Time KOTOR II

? Maybe by buying a HD TV and running it...(??) (No idea)

Haven't completed... yet (except it's been ages) The Movies Fable Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy Tactics Advance ...but I'm SO close to the end on all of them. Others that are in need of attention Mass Effect (Guitar Hero II just sucks me before I can get back to it) THE backlog... the ones I can't even get started on Jade Empire Final Fantasy X Final Fantasy XII (played the beginning and loved it, why haven't I gone back?) Oblivion Chronicles of Riddick Kingdom Hearts Pikmin

Looking forward to it! I hope Harmonix enjoy the same sort of enjoyment they did with Guitar Hero. As for that achievement: If you want it you'll have to beat me first... ...which, of course, will be very easy for you

WTF?! I just played a player called "garfeh" in a non-ranked match (I think) on "Quick Match" (I think). We were both on easy, it turned out, and I kicked his butt. No big deal as the guy was obviously new to the game... but three songs into our 6 song best of, he quits and I get an achievement: "Meet Your Maker" What's going on? Edit: Ah. Here's what's going on: To get the achievement you have to beat someone/co-op with someone who beat someone who beat some who beat someone who beat a maker of the game.

Well, as if it needed to be confirmed, I decided to go back to Guitar Hero II and last night and guess what? It still, completely, utterly and totally rocks... even though the songs are quite as "well known" and they're mostly not master recordings, I still found myself having a far better time than with Guitar Hero 3. Who would have thought that a GH game could be messed up? Who would have thought that online multiplayer and original master recordings would add so little? Who would have thought that presentation mattered so much? Not Red Octane, obviously. Annoying things that I've not yet complained about in GH3: - During Star Power your guitar sounds like its in a wind tunnel. - Where the hell is the crowd? - Too many things pop up while your playing, pulling you out of the meditative state of strumming along to the music. - The female characters have been ruined, as such my girlfriend isn't interested in playing any more. - You only connect to an online game one in ten goes. - And then the person you're playing against cheats. - Online gameplay is amazingly boring and unsatisfying (you can't as far as I can see it, even decide to play with a friend). and the most annoying thing, which really sums up Neversofts complete lack of understanding of humour (which never bothered me that much in Tony Hawks): - During the stupid, over the top, Neversoft logo animation, their amp is set to 12. Yes, you read right: 12. Why not 13? Why not 14? Why not 20? Why not 1,000? Simple, because only 11 is funny. It doesn't get funnier with each increment, Neversoft. Notice how Spinal Tap did it perfectly, subtley, hilariously. You saying, "Well, we'll go to 12! Ha! Ha! Ha!", is NOT funny. It's 100% unoriginal, unfunny, not clever and just amazingly lame. Just like the humour in all of Neversoft's games, actually.

Pot smoking isn't cool, young man.

No worries! Re: The HD business. It seems that if the XBox is changed then you need to be online to access DLC, but there's no stories here from people just upgrading their harddrive. So can we assume if I buy a 120GB HD that I won't have any problems?

The cramp or the game?

I'm about to sign up for LOVEFILM and I know there's a "refer a friend" site that allows you to get free hardware if you take up one of their offers from their partners... and one of these is LOVEFILM... So I've figured if I'm already going to do it, I might as well see if I can get enough referrals for some free hardware (we'll see). Question is... What should I get? I've already got a 360, which I love and am happy with, but should I get: a) A 40GB PS3 A Wii or c) A 360 Elite (and then sell my 360) I'm tempted to go for the 360 Elite, but am I just being silly seeing how I've already got a 360?

That doesn't sound good

Just press RB or LB to cycle just showing DEMOS, XBLA TITLES, ORIGINALS, etc.

You can only use official Microsoft harddrives, annoyingly, which probably do feature just a normal 2.5" drive, but they also use a unique interface. Unfortunately I don't think you can even mod it yourself because of the annoying security stuff they put on the HD.

7GB of your 20GB is reserved as cache for games and backwards compatibility I read somewhere that the 120GB HD is so expensive, you may as well just buy an Elite