SiN

i guess it is, but im positive i saw blood. and Jeff was able to pull of a decapitation. pretty much, the game is either JUST gonna get a T rating, or it may go mature. either way though, the blood doesnt feel like it was added for the hell of it, it fits the rest of the game very well. agreed, and my opinion prolly didnt come thru with that preview. basically, im pretty sad that the platformy bits are gone, but the game isnt gonna suck because of it. although seeing as WW just runs on (what seems like) an upgraded version of the SoT engine, all the platformy code is still in there ... im quite confident that Ubi will put it to use and have a fair bit of adventuring, but its just not gonna be innovative on anything SoT did. IMO, the adventuring will be there, it just wont be the focus of the game like it was in SoT. SiN

thus the whole concept of licsensing the engine. i dunno, im pretty close to beating doom3, but the university life has stopped me from doing so. overall, i'd say its an amazing game ... it did exactly what id claimed it would ... "scare the shit out of me", so im rather happy with it. i think the best way to play it is in small sessions ... no more than an hour at a time. same with halo. i can never play fps's for too long, since in the end they're all pretty repetitive. however, doom3 has been quite the experience. SiN

just watched the trailer, and it was absolutely amazing. its good to see the high quality of dialogue, and variety of gameplay & levels. i really didnt wanna see the trailer all, cos i didnt wanna spoil this excellent game for myself, but i suppose it was kinda worth it roll on 2005! SiN

pc gamer uk is THE best mag ever. i love it, the writing is hilarious, to the point, and their reviews totally work with me. only VERY occasionally are they pretentious, but even then its not overbearing ... ... and with the recent redesign, the mag has got even better. the new "extra-life" section is great. i highly recommend it if u want a pc gaming mag. SiN

EG. although its a tough choice, because WH40K seems like such a damn good & innovative game. but seeing as i absolutely love dungeon keeper, and will play anything similar to it, EGs got my vote. the art style and creativity just sweetens the deal. and besides, any money towards former bullfrog guys is well spent money. SiN

that would be SiN and yes, i have done most of the above. i KNOW its not fun ... ive moved house 3 times over the past few years ... my sisters had a great time ordering me & my dad where to put everything, and what colour they wanted each room, and stuff like that. me and my dad though, didnt have a good time, moving ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FRIGGIN BOXES from one house to another!!! but thats the beauty of games ... u get to do all the fun stuff without all the boring (and back-breaking!) work. SiN

No matter how much you hate it, you can't deny that The Sims is an ingenious game. Let me explain. Before it was popular to hate The Sims, and before the stream of expansions came out, and before it was the best selling game, I played it. And I played it for 5 hours straight (12am-5am). And I loved it. And I didn't even think that my sister's would get massively hooked onto it. And more importantly, I never played with my sister's barbie dolls when I was younger. So why did I like it? It was the ultimate sandbox game. It was a great rags-to-riches story. It was (bar Black&White) the closest thing PC games have come to simulating life. It was incredibly fun. Why did my sisters like it? It was virtual barbie doll house. It was fun to build houses. It was fun to furnish houses. It had a simple-to-use interface. It was fun to watch how their characters interacted. It was fun to raise a family. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that, whether he intended it or not, Will Wright (who I have a HUGE amount of respect for) created a wide appeal game. It appealed to both hardcore gamers (me) and casual gamers (my sisters) for different reasons. And no matter how much you hate The Sims it's a very good thing for the PC gaming industry. It's bringing in new blood. Someone who plays the sims today, may play SimCity tomorrow, then Rollercoaster Tycoon, and who knows where it could go from there ... SiN

its "brilliant" ideas like that which piss me off. especially with a game like The Sims 2 ... such a mainstream game ... SO many people are gonna be put off by pc gaming simply because of silly copy protection concepts like this one. SiN

used to happen to me ALL the time, im glad im not the only one .... ... a year or two ago, my computer was in the living room, right next to the tv. so my memories of movies are connected with games. whenever i watch "that thing you do" i remember playing the second level of that POS game, 007:nightfire ... thank god i just borrowed it! SiN

@manny: i actually wanted to code a game like that ... pretty much a semi-futuristic city where u can just go around playing arcade games, drinking, play darts/pool/snooker/other bar games, cards, etc. there'd be no leveling up, but u would win prestigue points or something for winning each game. i thought it was a cool enuff idea (and certainly quite refreshing after the rush of generic mmorpg's) but i dont really have the time, infrastructure, or media to do it. code wise though, i think i could handle it SiN

great demo! so chris sawyer hasnt lost his touch then ... the game still has the same addictive qualities that his other games have. i havent played transport tycoon much, but this feels like a great game anyway. the graphics arnt great, but they arnt all that bad ... nothing i cant handle. what bothers me is that i cant believe that such an important section of the game is done in such a sloppy manner ... building roads/railway tracks. i KNOW that it isnt all that hard to create a sim city style road system, where u just lay tiles and the cpu figures out what type it should be. IMO, thats prolly the most annoying thing about the game ... ... but other than its an excellent game ... im sold! SiN

ive had 4 video cards in total ... - an nVidia RivaTNT - an ATI Radeon 7000 - an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 - and an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Go so far, the only one thats given me trouble is the bloody radeon. yes, its an old card, but ive gotten terrible graphical glitches in many old games, new games, all types of games! they may make fast cards, but they're really not that reliable. which is why i stick to nvidia. SiN

LOL, that was bloody hilarious ! ;D SiN

woah, those shots look stunning! damn, c&c really isnt gonna be the same without the GDI vs. NOD games. and judging from the basic interface, it was gonna be the side-bar similar to the old C&C's. as for the "why was it canned" question, it wasnt because generals sold badly ... infact, i think it sold pretty well. it was canned because those bastards at EA shut down westwood. SiN

IMO, yes they did. in your opinion, maybe not. i think the main flaw with B&W was the fact that it was too repetitive. for me, it wasnt such a bad thing ... i mean yes, black&white was repetitive, but isnt every bloody fps on the market 10 times more repetitive? i was totally engrossed & entertained by the game, which is more than i can say for most FPS's. excellent ... thats the mind-set ur suppose to be in. hype will always be there, and people will always hype their games ... hell, when im programming games, i hype em too, developers cant help it, its just great to talk about what ur working on. however, if u remember that its just a game, and u dont create expectations that are too high, u wont be disappointed. SiN

yes, they certainly are. notice that the next generation of sim games are coming from the same source as the old ones : Bullfrog. the heads of lionhead & elixir were both from bullfrog. SiN

ive said it before, and ill say it again ... black&white delivered on MOST of the hype it created ... its just that people started making up hype in their own heads, expecting the game to be great & amazing for each and every person, some form of super-game maybe. obviously its still a game, and many would naturally be disappointed. lets try and remember what it hyped, and what it delivered ... HYPE : your actions would reflect upon your morality, and how the people viewed you. REALITY : delivered. the hand changed appropriately, and being evil really felt evil. having watched my friend be a good God, i can safely say there is a world of difference between the 2, in terms of looks & even gameplay. HYPE : your creature would be able to learn things that you'd teach em. REALITY : delivered. each creature was a unique beast. i really felt like i taught my creature stuff. granted, it was pretty tough to figure out whether what the creature was thinking, but thats a minor flaw. HYPE : each villager would think individually, and have advanced ai. REALITY : somewhat delivered. heres where they didnt quite deliver on the hype ... the villager ai wasnt all that great, and when u think about it, even if it was, u wouldnt notice it. the fact that there are 100's of villagers means that u wouldnt notice how great their ai was anyway. but ill admit that they didnt quite deliver over here. HYPE : ud be able to sync ur ingame weather with ur real-life weather REALITY : delivered. it apparently worked, but i didnt try it. HYPE : the game would have great physics, which ud be able to use to your advantage REALITY : delivered. and an excellent implemenation too. i never thought flinging fireballs at enemy villages would be so much fun! HYPE : ud be able to move ur hand around to cast spells (glyphs) REALITY : delivered. another excellent one. it worked great, it helped with the atmosphere, and if u couldnt do it, u could always go back to the temple. now look, i could go on, but the fact of the matter is, lionhead delivered on MANY things and they didnt on a few. in a world where even the most generic games dont reach their very basic hype, im glad lionhead dared to be different, and took a stab at making an extremely ambitious game. they didnt succeed entirely (and even Peter Molyneux admits that) but at least they tried and somewhat succeeded ... thats more than u can say for most developers SiN

i downloaded it yesterday ... ive been watching this game really closely, and was REALLY looking forward to the demo. after the screw-up that was Republic:The Revolution i wanted to see whether elixir could redeem themselves. they did. the game is great. it was a little frustrating capturing the guys, but the gameplay is great, the atmosphere is simply amazing ... i love the music, the graphics, the sound, and especially the animation. any1 else seen one of their workers being "transmogrified" into a soldier ? its great stuff apparently, the guys at elixir wanted the interface to be as simple as possible, but it actually feels a little convulted to me ... the method for building rooms was far simpler in dungeon keeper. but overall the demo has me hooked, and im SO gonna rush out and buy the full game when its released in september. SiN

i REALLY wanna play fable, but i theres no way im getting an xbox to play it on ... i just spend C$ 2000 on a top-of-the-line laptop, so i cant afford anything right now. im willing to bet it'll be coming to the PC too ...but it'll take time. im a patient guy, so ill wait it looks to me like fable will actually be delievering on most of the hype, which is a good thing in, seeing as most games are all-hype nowadays. SiN

gamespot isnt a bad website, but it seems REALLY dry to me. everything from the reviews to the articles to the news is done in such a serious manner ... i cant stand it! usually, if i read a news article on gamespot, ill read it again on here on idle thumbs & my pcgamer-uk mag, cos both present it in a far more interesting and humourous manner. as for the article, i have yet to read it, but ill prolly do so soon ... the whole games turning into art thing is pretty exciting, but the industry still has to mature for it to get into full swing/acceptance SiN

no, no, its just modesty. i havent watched the video yet, but molyneux has been known to say "i think that all my previous games suck". he's very critical of his work, and his companys work. he likes to get everything done perfectly, which is why most of LH's games take ages to develop. needless to say, Fable WILL be a kick-ass game! EDIT : oh yeah, and its out on xbox in september. SiN

thats exactly the point that most people dont seem to understand. adventure games arnt being made, because they dont generate cash. why is that such an "evil" thing? look, i kno most of u guys think of lucasarts as an evil corporation, and u kno what, there is a degree of truth to that ... but well ... heres a good quote ... one of the head-honcho's at team17 (very cool guy, not the "generic accountant suit guy" like at LEC) said this when asked "why dont u guys make games other than worms?" ... "i'd love to take the risk, but there are 80 employers here with families that need to eat. im far more concerned about their well-being than making innovative games" ... and thats what every1 forgets ... sure LEC could make some adventure games, but when they dont sell, screw thinking of the executives, but think about what would happen to the "working man". if LEC had released S&M2, there would be even more firings than what has already happend. mind u though, im NEVER gonna forgive them for announcing, releasing screens/videos and showcasing (at E3) S&M2 and then canning it! and i totally agree with Kingzjester ... those are my thoughts exact. the adventure genre is more-or-less dead, but games are gonna rip components out of it to make the rest of the genres more robust in terms of storyline. BG&E was certainly a great game that had more adventure than action. and now when i playing doom3 (kick ass game btw) i always think that it would be pretty cool to have a dialog-tree when confronting people. even the adventure game legends arnt making adventure games anymore, tim schafer is making a platformer, and ron gilbert said his next game wouldnt be an adventure game ... but im positive that the spirit of adventure games will live in both projects. SiN

i had a similar "time-limit" experience with gta2 ... with some interesting side effects. the demo had the full first map with a limited amount of missions and a 6 minute timer. i played the demo over & over again, until around 2 weeks later (after my exams) i bought the game. when i did, i played the game in a very hurried manner all the time. i had got so used to the rushed feeling of the demo, that even though i had unlimited time with the full game, i couldnt shake the way i played the demo off me ... eventually i got used to it, but it was interesting anyway ... SiN

which is fine really, i dont mind the rpg aspect of the gta series ... especially in gta3 where ur avatar was just a reflection of yourself, u notice that he never talked or anything ... he was a digital represenation of urself. that was a cool touch. however, what i hate about the current eating system they have going is that its something that u have to maintain ... i wouldnt mind it if there was a level-up feature or some such nonsense, but i hate the fact that i cant just get over and done with eating/exercising ... i need to eat & exercise all the time & if i dont feel like it, i wont be as good a player ... ... things like aiming should be left to the player ... the game shouldnt judge how good u are at shooting, YOU should. SiN

i totally agree. i mean, as i said before, the guy is definitly over-rated, and seems a bit cocky, but i respect the guy like hell. u kno, i program games, and one of my main problems have been commitment & long-term enthusiasm. both are closely connected ... when ur enthusiastic at the beginning of the project, ur commitment is strong and u work very efficiently ... but as the project progresses, u get bored, lose enthusiasm and lose commitment too ... at that point its very difficult to continue working on the project. the fact that John Romero was able to stick with Daikatana for 4 years, after it had been ridiculed like hell, and still get up and say, "It's going to rock", thats some insane stuff. and for that, he has my respect. im always rooting his stuff on, and keeping track on what hes working on (currently at midway working on a Gauntlet game) ... i hope he does get back to his peak like at id software. i think john carmack was the one who always kept him in place ... made sure he wouldnt go too crazy, or become too full of himself. i mean, carmack was always in the spotlight too, so maybe romero was a little, errr, "tamer" then. although once he founded Ion Storm, he went completely nuts ... he made HUGE mistakes from the start, the most glaringly obvious one being that he hired a massive amount of staff right at the start ... big mistake, the in-studio culture wasnt allowed to grow well. but mcgee and hall seem to be fine ... anachronox came out very well, and alice was excellent. SiN