Ben X

If you (attempt to) read the mess of replies to that Ron Gilbert post, you'll probably extrapolate this anyway, and indeed I'm sure most people in the world know this by now, but I'm going to say it quickly anyway as noone else has bothered: Ron Gilbert was partially inspired by the original POTC Disneyworld ride when creating Monkey Islands 1 & 2, so it's no surprise that the movie shares similarities with the games. I also agree with Thrik, though, that it's more than likely that many of the film team were influenced in turn by the games.

Are you crazy? Last Crusade is a brilliant film! It's funny, exciting, inventive. Brilliant acting, stunts, direction, script, setpieces, score. It can't quite touch Raiders, but by going on a lighter tack it sets itself apart from the first film, and so doesn't have to match it. Frankly, the tank action sequence near the end which Spielberg manages to sustain for about 20 minutes, moving effortlessly back and forth between action, laughs and emotional moments, justifies the film on its own.

The only way to rescue The Simpsons is to rename it Springfield, so they don't have to ruin almost every story they come up with by crowbarring the titular family in somehow. And Family Guy sucks.

If someone here is in the industry, who knows someone who knows someone, can I also make a few requests? Can we have Toonstruck 2 as soon as possible, please? And can Sam And Max Episodes get the original voices back and not suck, please? Ooh, and a really good Back To The Future game would be good. And can I have a job? And an Idle Thumbs game too, if you fancy it. Gibbage plug here. Thaaaaaaaaanks!

Yeah yeah, I've played BTTF 2 & 3 on the megadrive, and they were atrocious. But surely we can come up with something better than Probe Entertainment and Image Ltd (if my excellent research skills are to be trusted).

Noone's mentioned Akira yet (unless I missed it). Is that too obvious? I really liked it. Also, Perfect Blue. Really crazy 'it's a dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream' structure, pretty cool. Oh, and I really liked Samurai Jack, but I flicked through the Ronin graphic novel, and realised Frank Miller could probably be justified in stealthily sticking a katana up Genndy Tarkovsky's ass for pilfering his plot.

Every episode I've seen, she's been the weak link. Sub-Chris Morris/Ali G VTs sink this programme, along with the faux-pundits they get into the studio. They could almost cut this down to a 15 minute bit with Jon Stewart and leave it at that... Still, great stuff from the senators. You wonder how America gets so het up about video games, until you realise it's just people like this.

Have you guys seen Wondershowzen (spelling?), that this clip is from? It's brilliant. If you're in the UK, and have freeview, it's played on TMF around 10pm. I think it's MTV originally, so most likely all of America has heard of it... I'm surprised YouTube has let these clips on, seeing as the programme's still going, and they've got a DVD out...

Nic Cage for Rorschach, I say. He can do ugly and ginger, he's got the right physique and the laconic drawl. I thought the V for Vendetta movie was okay, but everything, especially the politics, was simplified to the point of being facile, I thought. And V was too humanised for my taste.

Speaking of youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgAuYskU9Uc Will we EVER see a reunion..? *sigh*

I didn't realise for ages that the AI in Hal-Life only becomes impressive on the highest difficulty setting. I was really annoyed about that, as I'm not that good a games-player, and I would have struggled to get through on that setting, without using the quick-save key to the point of breaking the game (I only allowed myself to use it when Valve forced me to smash crates for minutes at a time). Couldn't they have kept the AI high on all difficulty levels, and just adjust the AI health levels or whatever? I'd rather be impressed and scared by the AI whilst thanking my lucky stars I can dispatch them with a single shotgun blast to the face, rather than never get to experience it. Perhaps Black Mesa can fix this for me!

Balls, Liero won't work immediately on my work PC. How unlike Gibbage... From the sounds of it, though, Worms ripped it off something rotten.

Attempting to lineate this circular argument... The author claims that the suggested detail of HL1 is superior to the paraded detail of HL2, and yet isn't HL2 the more elliptic of the two? In HL1 , we know what is happening, why and how. In HL2, we are presented with a world into which we have awoken confused and horrified. We know nothing outside this city/state (in HL1 we can assume the outside world is oblivious and contemporaneously regular) of the world order, and inside it only what we gather from incidental detail. Surely that is the strength of HL2, hailed by critics as setting it apart from its contemporaries moreso than its graphics and other qualities?

"Like fruitcake!" - Sam And Max Hit The Road "They're waiting for you Gordon. In the test-chamberrrrrrrrr" - Half-Life "Matsaruba!" - alien buddy in Another World

Craig Charles did a gig at my university, tried to get in my girlfriend's knickers, then when he failed, went with the nearest fat chick.

Yeah, that was amazing! I was replaying it in my head and grinning like an idiot all the way home from work. Ah, back when Ben Stiller had the Midas Touch. Also, it kicked Dark Place's ASS. "All monkey whores will sit on Paragon's lap"

But balanced perfectly with the relief of catching a bubble of air: "wib-wop"

Man, it's all good as long as they get the feeling of a proper swordfight. The last swordfighting interface that felt right to me was Prince of Persia (the original, obv.). Oblivion's is pretty good, actually, but imagine how good it could be with precision parries, blocking etc. Then, bring on the lightsabers!

Essential to save on space-bar wear-and-tear when you're typing 'Darkplace was shit'?

Speaking of youtube and dancing, everyone's probably seen breakdancing clip by now, but it's brilliant. The first guy is pretty lame, but he just makes the second one look even better. That lucky nerd must have been up to his double-jointed neck in poontang that night...

My flatmate Dan and I had a very similar conversation a while back, about how the opening section of HL2 was, for us, the best, despite having no weapons at all. The interaction, the details, the running through squats and leaping over rooftops with bullets whizzing past. Dan drew the line around where Barney throws you the crowbar. I had to include the first firefight, because the pistol feels so meaty, the aiming so pleasurable, the shootouts so dramatic in a Sergio Leone way. A whole game like this, we said, would be amazing. Of course, they'd have to work very hard to make it non-linear and pack it full of detail. And it helps that HL2 was able to be self-indulgent to a point, knowing that they could take time over giving the players a HEV suit or a crowbar, as most would revel in the nostalgia.

Mmmmm, looks nice. And most of it isn't really there to show gameplay, right? It's an engine demo, with only a sneak peek of Crytek at the end. But the faces don't look half as impressive in-game as in that piccie, to my eye. Do you guys find that after the first watch, new engine-demos start to feel current-gen? It's like the Unreal Engine 3 shots. When I first saw them, they blew me away. Now my mind has tricked me into thinking that every game looks that good. Weird.

Hi Everyone, Good to see the forums finally back up, and ripe for a plug. Dan Marshall is writing a game, 'Gibbage'. It's a cartoon deathmatch platformer that Dan has created from scratch on his own, teaching himself to code along the way. He's chronicled this in PC Zone magazine, and as the game is nearing completion, Dan's set up a blog reprinting the articles. It's a really good read, and he'll soon be giving more in-depth tales of the basics of self-taught bedroom programming, so check it out. The website is not up properly yet, but you can download the demo for free. I implore you all to check the demo and blog out, and give Dan feedback on the blog if you wish. It's a brilliantly fun game, with the emphasis on gameplay, and as an Indie Game, fighting against the chart-clogging corporate tosh we put up with, it needs all the support and attention it can get. Thanks, Ben Ward

Please do email Dan with technical problems/queries - he may be able to help, or at least explain why it won't work! dan@gibbage.co.uk He's happy to help if he can, and eager for any feedback. Hope you have more luck soon, B

Oops! Sorry Nick, as Miffy observes, the current demo is really 'proof-of-gameplay' only, and not all technically sorted out etc. There will be a lovely, updated demo released at the same time as the full game. However, it runs on most systems we've tried, so it's still worth a try. And if not, the blog gives you the bestest page of PCZone's previous months for free, so that's always worth a read while you wait for the spectacular spectacular that is Gibbage. B