ThunderPeel2001

WOW! I'd have to say that this is well worth it!! The Movies isn't perfect, infact it feels like two things: A pretty fun management sim (think 'Sim-Hollywood Studio' instead of Theme Park) and an incredibly capable 3D movie maker. You could have easily sold the two separately, and the sim "game" element, is lots of fun. The whole thing is incredibly polished, too.

At least there's some hope: "I only recently learned of this. Anyone who knows Andrew knows he would never do anything violent. This was clearly a cry for attention that came from a very dark and lonely place inside of Andrew. It seems the media in general is already treating this as some hot topic when, in reality, it is a small story about a sad and confused guy who needs to get some help. He is now getting that help." I hope he gets better!

Aaaah! I'm glad that cleared things up. Thanks for your list of things to come, they do indeed sound hopeful! Another version of SSFII, though?? Hmmm. I wish they'd just bring out Street Fighter Alpha 3. THERE was a decent SF game! Also, I wish they'd get their act together with regards to the emulation of the XBox... At least I could have a fish around with some of those "classics" if they could be bothered to implement them! Ah, well. I'm looking forward to picking up Guitar Hero 2 when I get some cash!

Here's Metacritic's opinion of the current list: Earth Defense Force 2017: 71 - "Mixed reviews" Rockstar Table Tennis: 81 - "Generally favourable" Viva Pinata: 84 - "Generally favourable" Blue Dragon: 89 - "Generally favourable" (maybe I should pick this one up! .. Except it's not released until October!) Lost Odyssey: NOT RELEASED Kameo: 79 - "Generally favourable" Virtua Tennis 3: 80 - "Generally favourable" (getting close to simulation territory?) Full-Auto...... Should this really be here? If so, why not Burnout? Nah... aaaaaaaaand.... our current champ... Guitar Hero 2: 93 "Universal acclaim"! I know I probably shouldn't be judging solely from reviews, but I don't think I want to play anything under 84, unless it's something pick-up/put-downable like Virtua Tennis 3... Is that really bad?

Cool! I like the idea of this thread, thanks for starting it! Some thoughts, though: I'm sure there's plenty of crap, average and just plain "fun" games on the XBox 360, but when 360 games cost so much I don't think they're worth picking up unless they're damned good. Maybe it's just me, but frankly I don't even want to bother spending time playing anything unless it's damned good. Likewise, when I can pick up the PC version of Lego Star Wars II for £9.99, there's no way I'm going to spend the required £24.99 to play it on the 360. It just seems like a rather pointless waste to do that, to me. Just my 2c.

Perhaps you misunderstood my use of the word "fun". You'll notice that I give Gears of War three thumbs in my sig, for example. Clearly I enjoyed it! (The new Half-Life, if you ask me.) What I meant when I said "fun" was more the well, "fun" end of the gaming spectrum. There seems to be more than enough games that involve walking around dense cities killing human beings, and not enough plain old simple FUN! I really miss the broad range the PlayStation offered, for example. (Is it just dewy-eyed nostalgia?). The 360 seems pretty "hardcore" and "gritty" by comparison. My fave games on the PS were Tony Hawks, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fantasy 7, (8 and 9), Soul Caliber, Vib Ribbon. Even Metal Gear Solid was, well, pretty silly. Viva Pinata looks like the type of game there's not enough of (IMO) on the 360, but Guitar Hero 2 really does look like a whole heap of good old fashioned FUN! No concerns of "realism", "urban grittiness" or FPS-ness, just plain entertainment! And that's what I meant... To me, Guitar Hero 2 is the first "fun" game on the 360, that's a) really good (there's less serious games on the 360 that aren't worth the time) and just concerned with entertainment without tense, violent situations. If there's more top-quality "fun" games for the 360 I don't know about, then please let me know! I'm so tired of "realism". Edit: Dear Lord, I can't help reading my post and hearing Hugh Bliss's voice saying the words... ! Oh well!

Gimme a break!

I've still no idea what you're point is... What's "popular opinion"? Are you saying that you dislike people who don't have opinions of their own? If so, I can understand, but if people can back it up, by internet or otherwise, then at least a) they're willing to try to defend their opinion and maybe they can create a decent argument? Perhaps you could furnish us with an example in order to paint a clearer picture?

I'm so pleased this is coming to the 360! It was one of the games that made me wish I'd just saved some cash and bought a PS2 instead. I've not played it, but I really like the sound of it and will be picking it up when I can. Finally, a fun game comes to the 360!

Vista's great. I made a new dual boot system recently, tentatively installed Vista and XP... and I haven't booted into XP once! Good stuff! To counter Toblix's weird-arse insistence on not revealing his specs... (??) Here's my new computer: Intel E6600 Core2Duo 2.40GHz 2GB (2x1GB) 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 400 Gb Seagate ST3400620AS Barracuda 7200.10 and Vista Home Premium I'm loving it!

Is it a website for a new game or Army recruitment? http://www.dosomethingamazing.com/?s=79&v=feature I'm surprised it doesn't say: "Answer the Call of Duty and join a Company of Heroes to earn yourself a Medal of Honor." ... And since when was disarming a bomb like playing a candy grabber machine??

This interests me because I've been wondering where games are going. You make an interesting observation. Now that "realism" has been done so often, and we've got the graphic power to make it look "real", will we start moving into fantasy instead?

Shut the hell up!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6434471.stm

I thought that the "reason" that people were calling Molyneux a TWAT was because people who had worked with him called him so...? I also thought that this discussion had reached the conclusion that his passion for gaming, even if his recent games haven't been as good as his hype (hence this thread in the first place), was still a Good Thing, and, it's probably better that at least he's trying to "turn our brains and emotions inside out", unlike other "big name" developers I could mention (John Romero, American McGee...). To recap; maybe I missed something, but why is Peter Molyneux a twat?

Uhhh...? So you might say... She is annoyed by Peter Molyneux, but she still appreciates that he's trying to do something new [in the industry, and so has good points]... ? I wasn't having a go at Yufster, I just think she's the only one who has been really vocal about their annoyance of Molyneux throughout this thread. Also, Vimes' comparison doesn't really account for people's annoyance... because people don't go around calling Coppola a twat because he's not done decent film recently.

Believe me, half of this thread has not been spent "flaming" Peter Molyneux! I think there's only one person who's annoyed by him and that's Yufster, and I even she appreciates that he's trying to something new.

I think you're right. It's also a lot closer to "real life" that way, too. And frankly, aside from the "knock-on" effect described above, I don't think there should be any judging by the game whatsoever. It really irked me that Black & White's tag line was "Find out who you really are", as if the designers had figured out some super metric personality test where the game would figure out your personality. The truth is, you can't truly make a decision if you think the game is going to judge you for it. What if I don't feel like helping that villager right now..... Well if I don't, my "good" rating will decrease, so I guess I better had. It's not really eliciting the real emotional response Molyneux is going for in his games, but instead turning "morality" into a "points based" system, and therefore a conscious decision to play the game a particular way.

He should shut the hell up for his own good. He got such bad press from reviewers and people who hang on his every word when he over-hyped (the excellent) Fable. He shouldn't even bother telling anyone what's "in" any new games if people can't take what he says as excited hype and are going to give him shit for not being able to watch trees grow, or whatever. It made the BBC news, for Pete's sake! Changing the to something more interesting, I still think it's a mistake to "judge" a player's playstyle by graphically showing how "good" or "evil" they are. If the player is to be truly "free" then there should be less obvious and contrived consequences for their actions. I still say that Syndicate gave the player more freedom to decide what was acceptable than Black & White or Fable.

Well, he certainly had opinions about each game that was being developed by Bullfrog, and plenty to say about each of them! I don't think it's any coincidence that just about every game that Peter Molyneux has been involved with has pushed gaming forward. Yufster, are you saying that he just "happened" to have hired the right people at their own "creative peaks" and tossed them away? Whether he designed and coded the games entirely by himself, or whether he just created the enviroments where they grew, he still has been involved in some ground-breaking games. From Sean Cooper's website: Re: Populous: "Designed and Created by Peter Molyneux, I was employed to help with this game from a YTS scheme in the UK." Yep, it sounds like Peter sure owes a lot to Sean Cooper and has been clearly riding on his coat-tails ever since!# Even if he didn't design Syndicate, back in the "good old days" games were only made by very small teams of people working in close proximity. It's highly unlikely that Peter just say in his office all day when the "real workers" did all the work! Also, Yufster, even if he IS a twat in RL (which is a different issue), I imagine the same could be said by those who have worked with Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott... just about any major director. At least Molyneux is someone who's passionate about what he does. I imagine being told by everyone that you're great doesn't really do much for your humility, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's difficult to work with... Of course, it could be argued that's because he's passionate. I wouldn't mind hearing some examples of his "twatness", though, unless you were just ?

I think that's a good point. While I wasn't let down by Fable by any means (I thought it was great!), I also missed all the hype. I just kept hearing lots of people saying they were let down (including one guy who game tested it). It seems that he probably does a little more harm than good, sometimes, and I think it finally caught up with him with Fable... hence his rather nice apology. Off topic a bit: We all know that Molyneux likes giving us the "freedom" to turn our characters into good or evil, ultimately leading to the lead characte growing horns or something.......... but really, that's such a linear reaction that's based on someone else's set of ideals. It's seemed to me for a while now that the whole system of being "recognized" for being "evil" or "good" is INCREDIBLY limiting..... It takes away the supposed "freedom" and leaves a challenge to be "good" or "evil" (who wants to be "middling"? ). Syndicate was the most successful and mature attempt at giving the player freedom to be good or evil, because the game pretty much ignored the player's actions..... it was truly down to the players set of ideals and their own conscience to decide what was "good" or "evil" - if it didn't bother you, you could just mow down a bunch of civilians instead of going around them... If it did, then you could just walk around. The game never "punished" you, so you were truly "free" to decide what to do. I hope he's lost his obsession with judging the player through contrived "tests" and then giving characters horns or a halo.

Ummm... Syndicate? Theme Park? Oh and he invented the god-sim with Populous. He also doesn't come across as arrogant during interviews, so I'm not sure where you get that opinion from (unless I've been reading the wrong interviews). He's actually one of the few people who seems interested in pushing the medium of video games forward.

I love [sir] Peter Molyneux, he's a genius, but, after what happened to the last Fable!

This was worth waiting for, if you ask me! It totally, totally, totally rocked! It reminded me of the possibilities of Sam & Max, and indeed the adventure game genre in general. Top notch work! If you're reading this and haven't bought Sam & Max season one yet, what are you waiting for?

Thanks for your comments! I'm looking forward to playing it!

Yeah, I see what you mean. That's a good way of putting it!