twmac

I just dug out Unplugged from my CD wallet to give it another listen. Very fond memories have just arisen again. The fact that he looked so close to death but somehow his voice is still so potent.

Don't worry about it dude. I just took a comment on the 8bit festival post out of hand and there was another random comment that you made that rubbed me the wrong way. That is the problem with the written word it is sometimes difficult to tell whether someone is being witty or rude. Seeing as you clearly didn't mean anything by it then I would like to make it water under the bridge.

It's hard not to have a game with voice acting that doesn't have Ron Perlman in it. Off the top of my head he did voices in Justice League Heroes, Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer and Halo 3. Him and Keith David just have great voices for those gruff, brooding types and are cheap enough not blow the whole budget up the wazoo...

I used to hate Alice and Chains then a couple of my friends took me on a road trip to Seville, playin gnothing but 'Dirt' by the aforementioned band and I am very much taken by them. I hope you have listened to their Umplugged performance it is both tragic and fantastic. Layne Staley looks like a corpse. Electric Wizard are fantastic too.

Well I'm going to disagree with you not just because you have sneered at pretty much any post I've put into teh Thumbs Forum but also because I disagree with your assertions Norfolk. I've played a few games that have properly made me grin, and I mean I have sat there and gone 'Shit I was prepared to like this game but this is better than I excpected'. The Club is properly old school in ideals and it works, it really does feel like a 90's or 80's arcade game done in 3-D. Condemned 2 for very different reasons made me very happy. It was like someone tried to make a first person Silent Hill and succeeded. Omega V - Brand new but decades old, same 2-D shooter but it is well thought out and looks beautiful. I'd rather play it over most full priced games. Then again everything you mentioned was PC orientated, try out 'N' the 360 version put a smile on my face. As for story telling... I still believe that most of the real story happens through us. When we nail that expert song on Guitar Hero. Get through that section of Bioshock without using Vita-chambers. Play through Golden Axe and get the achievement for not using continues... Games can tell stories but they aren't immediatel worse by not telling any or being bad at telling them as long as the game is actually any good,

Whoops, that'll teach me not to read through the stuff I missed since I last logged in. That makes me really look forward to the Portishead album then. In fact I might burst... Or disgracefully download it. The festival for 8bit, is that the one in December in New York? There are a couple now for what i remember. USK with PicoPicodisco are genius and there is a guy called Motokick who refuses to release albums but was on an 8bit peoples compilation who really rocks. Yeah miffy, I know there is a Luso connection in Canada so it would be interesting to see how far the influences have spread.

Beija Flor? Nice name. Went and checked out the link they are very sweet aren't they? Do you know where they found the name from? I can't remember which type of flower it is but it is a Portuguese name (it is like a dandelion or a daisy or something). Been introduced to a whole load of traditional Balkan music recently and I'm sifting through it as we speak, so far Baba Zula have sparked some interest. Have been listening to a few tracks off of the Magnolia Soundtrack and also the 28 weeks later OST. The former only has a couple of good singer songwriter bits at the end of the album and the latter is great ambient music but the composer pretty much remixes the the first film's song about 9 times. I'm also trying not to get too excited but failing to do so as some one just told me that Portishead are going to release another album (apparently that was in the Observer in England and they did a big article on it and stuff). Can't wait.

http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/854/854580p1.html Glad that Take Two turned them down, imagine EA getting their hands on GTA, the take two sports titles and the oblivion series? That would be my worst nightmare if EA could finally bury the 2K series and thus give them total domnance of the sports games market.

Ben, that ıs a lıttle uncalled for. Skate is one of only a few titles that EA have gotten right and part of the reason for that is because they were attempting to usurp the leader in that field: Tony Hawks. If EA purchase Take Two, the maın competıtor to their sports franchise will be gone (part of the only reason that there has been any ınnovatıon ın their sports games at all 95-98 were dark tımes for anyone who enjoyed a bıt of sımulated footy) and that can only be a bad thıng. Miffy, I have a hard time in belıeving that NHL 07 ıs better than 2K7, ın part because I`ve played both and NHL07 is just 06 wıth a ton of features removed (only Ovechkın has a specıal deke/move) and the Dynasty mode ıs now functıonal and doesn`t break or crash as much. Also I`ve played Army of Two and it is fuckıng dire. EA PR is good and it is convincing people that it is changing but in reality I`ve seen little evıdence to prove that.

Yeah the conversation was a little unfocused. One minute they seemed to be saying that there would be a shift away from graphics now that they were at such a high technical level then they were saying that there is was still so many things they could still do to improve it. It was convenient to have guys behind some of the best racing games of the last year so none of them could really slag off the others' games. I would liked it if they had just thrown one of the random Devs from Crazy Frog Racer in the mix to watch him flounder. I recently read an article on ET and another game that failed miserably and it went into some detail with the guys behind the development for them and it was really interesting to see how they fought and lost in their attempts to release a half decent game. I don't know I always find I learn a lot more from mistakes than people gathering to pat each other on the back.

Always wanted to play a game where I was a rabbi... Finally!

The crap time travel game was Blinx: the ginger cat thing. But that is irrelevant, I would be inclined to agree with you. I cannot wait to get my hands on N+ on XLA, which I think is a classic example of an indie game doing well.

Happy Bday, how old is that now? 19?

Flipping heck I didn't think the battle would be over that quickly: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=92955 Is this good or bad news? I never liked the idea of split formats but then again I don't like Sony very much.

Cheeky MS. I've always liked stories like this as it is interesting to see how corporations try and subtly manipulate what we think and say. Or, in some cases, how they very unsubtly manipulate the hearts and minds. Nice link.

Damnit. Too lazy to shave or else you would be totally on as I'm travelling around eastern europe for the next month and have already amassed a large amount of facial hair.

Yeah, I agree that single format is good. Just wished it wasn't going straight into Sony's pocket. As to the 360 performing poorly, it is doing pretty well in North America so when I came back to Europe recently it was quite a surprise to see how little anyone seemed to know about it aside from in the UK.

So I'm the only one who thought the last boss was a little too easy then? If, before entering the main arena, you go into a small area opposite the entry to the boss there is enough ammo and different weapons to help you take out the boss. Also if you are struggling, it is very easy to get him stuck in the scenary to the left hand side of the train carriage and then keep pelting him with everything you've got when he is vulnerable. I very much enjoyed Gears of War but then I don't play any games on PC so I have no point of reference I suppose.

I actually really like the way they convey what they like about a game or for that matter don't like about a game and can generally make me understand that without breaking everything down to a points system or easily digestible bites. The reviews for Mario Galaxy, Need for Speed and The Club were all standout. Tried to introduce this to some Montrealers and it was awesome to see how bewildered they were by it. One said he liked it despite not having a clue why.

Has it really been 2 years? What is the porn industry do, move into digital distrubution only? I only ask this as it was what made VHS and broke betamax (porn industry liked VHS). From what I remember Sony are a little squemish on allowing Adult only material onto their IP. It would be weird if you ended up being able to download it on Xbox LIVE and the PS network...

Thank you Rab for vindicating The Club. http://www.bbc.co.uk/videogaiden/ Radiogaiden has some other good moments apart from this.

Been having this problem. When it takes too long to write stuff on the forums , recently, they don't get posted and unless you have copied the text before hand it often means you can't get it back.

Liked that review a lot. Just finished trying to play Dreamfall (it crashes on my xbox everytime it autosaves on the section with the dark people's library) and I definitely found myself enjoying despite some of the glaring annoyances and fatal crashes.

Why do you have to buy a PS3? It is coming out on the 360 and eventually the PC. In fact most talk has been that the number IV has been delayed because they can't get it to work on the PS3, properly (wouldn't surprise me what with Saints Row being cancelled). My only really problem with the GTA series is the fact that it seems to sacrifice good controls with sensible mission structures for open ended worlds. I found myself getting bored of each of the games within a week and frustrated with the missions, that if they had been a more linear nature critics would have laughed at them for their amature nature. So far, every bit of footage I've seen doesn't look all that good, but that might be because they are using in-game footage. Still, it is going to take me a lot of convincing to buy it. shock of horrors I'm looking forward to Mercenaries more.

I have purchased my copy and now I need to find someone with a 360 to play it on as mine is currently not in my possesion. Added: Okay I did a really long edit and lost it all because I spent too long writing it, in short The Club is great the pros and cons are as follows: Pros: -Alot more varied challenges in the full game -The levels are well laid out (I can already see ways to get a comboe running for the whole level on some of them) - Enemies varied in appearance - Weapons all feel different (so far) - Achievements are intersting and challenging -Plenty to muck about with - Feels like you are playing the Running Man Cons: -Multiplayer is passable -Choice of character seems to merely be about aesthetics (that could be a pro as the multiplayer will be a little more varied) -So far all the levels have the same bland browns and greys -If you don't have a gold account you cannot check the leaderboards The last negative really pissed me off.