Wrestlevania

Hmm, well this is interesting. Maybe I will just pick up the original version after all. I rarely have the patience to retread a game once I've finished it. And that's assuming I even finish it...

I noticed that too, as I decided to check the credit roll I was so impressed.

Take Two kick things up a gear, calling Manhunt 2 a "fine piece of art": I've always wanted to play the sequel. This media tit-for-tat has me leaning heavily on the "subversive marketing ploy" angle now though. Idiots.

I grabbed the Overlord demo off Xbox LIVE earlier this week and finally sat down to play it last night. And holy heck--this game is a riot! Whilst your own character, the Overlord, is completely unspectacular (at least in the demo), your Minions are fantastic. I've not seen this much character in a game for a looong time, and the comparisons to the Dungeon Keeper series are more than justified. Both in terms of visual flair and humour. It also bears more than a passing resembence to Sacrifice in how it plays as well. I liked the voice acting as it happens, at least for you main Minion adviser. The Minions themselves are also very cheeky, and have some decent stock phrases whilst charging about the landscape. The control system is extremely simple too, given the format of the game. Just 'look' towards something you don't want to live any longer, then pull the right trigger and your Minions race into battle. They're pretty clever little buggers too, clearing the immediate area of enemies, not just the one you sent them after initially. Once the job's done, they harvest any souls and bring them back to you. You can then summon more Minions to add to your mob. Overall I'm really looking forward to at least renting this game, if not buying it outright.

Ah, thanks for that Miffy; didn't even think to look on GameFAQs. Probably for the the best, though... I've since done a bit of background reading on Ninja Gaiden Black, and it seems to include more content beyond the free updates released over DLC. So I guess I'm going to have to try and track down a copy after all.

I tell them, "Thanks, but I don't have a cat." They usually get it after a moment; it's quite interesting to watch their expression shift quickly several times as they mull it over.

I know not that to which you refer.

...fuck! I mean, ask a few leading questions why don't you..? I've voiced my concerns elsewhere on this spiralling into a Europe-wide ban, as a direct result of the BBFC's action. Looks like it may be heading that way.

We're talking about prison here, so can we at least use the correct canon please? It's "bitch-tits".

The game was actually very, very good. The gameplay worked, combat was exciting and character control was arguably far superior to then-contemporary Tomb Raider 2.

Fuck yeah!

No surprise, but still fucking stupid.

...bloody students.

It's still a little cloudy at this point - plus it crashes on my machine when it tries to start up anyway... Anyway, my opinon of American McGee would be: compelling art style, good grasp of essential mechanics, but struggles with the "meat" - hence the reliance on prior works (i.e. Alice, Grimm) to flesh things out convincingly. Whilst I couldn't shake the nagging "it's just a pretty Quake 2 mod" feeling when I played Alice, I still want to see his forthcoming Grimm episodes succeed. I'll also make a point of adding that Shack interview to my reading list. Bonus Point: Chris also mentioned Thumbs, whilst talking about working for Shack News, on the latest Played podcast, which I was listening to on the way into work this morning.

I'v been thinking about this overnight and I can see both real-time and turn-based combat being interchangable and still working out. I'm interested to know what Bethesda have done with the idea of hexagonal movement for the world though. Getting in the right place for combat - i.e. optimal range, engaging a target, etc. - was a key part of the original turn-based games. The strategy part was also the most fun aspect of the combat; planning out how to tackle a situation, deciding who to kill first, working out what you could accomplish each turn with the AP you had available. If Bethesda don't allow people to use turn-based combat exclusively if they wish, then the game will be much weaker for it. And if they've watered down the strategy, by not accurately translating the whole "AP counting" approach to combat (like the original titles), then that's what'll ruin it in my opinion. In turn-based mode, I would also like to have the option to (automatically?) pull back to an isometric view for combat, with a glowy hexagon grid overlaying the terrain. Pipe dream though I'm sure -- I really should read that scanned Game Informer article now.

B-b-b-but BioShock! Too Human! :\ August is already block-booked with *ahem* more important titles if you ask me...

That's precisely my point; there appears to be some engrained need to perpetuate the villification of "traditional" enemies of the West, typically Communist societies. In a sick way I also find it somewhat amusing. Consider the point-of-view that these games are designed for the most prominent Consumerist societies, and actually involve you fighting anything that threatens this Consumerism. It's like we're the publishing houses' commercial infantry!

I agree, Marek; it's becoming tedious to the point of being outright persecution. The more this happens in our ever-more connected world, the more ashamed I feel being on the "good" side. It's shit. I like where Dan's coming from, but DEFCON's enemies are completely faceless in this context. It's not like your charging across a battlefield, on foot (or whatever), with the express aim of slaughtering a specific race is it? What I'm getting at is perhaps deeper than where Marek's coming from, in that specific races/nationalities are being villified over and over again. Yet we're supposed to be a global nation now, supposedly more tolerant of others, etc. In reality, this is complete shit. Western games companies - for this particular type of game scenario - are just continuously exploiting "weaker" economies, because they're easy targets. As I see it, these companies seem to have only three options when it comes to creating this particular format of war game: Historical: exclusively WW2, so Germans (Alternate) Modern Day: China, or restart/perpetuate the Cold War (i.e. Russia) Futuristic: fucking aliens Just for once, I'd like to see someone have the balls to create a mainstream conflict game where the West is actually behaving like some marauding cunt. C&C Generals' non-Western campaigns don't count in my opinion, because it's bile-churning stereotypes were offensive in the extreme. I've had plans to create a simple RTS for quite a while now, based around a peaceful alien race that gets attacked by invading humans, and this might be enough of a catalyst to finally get started on it.

I've been using Safari for Windows on both my workstation and laptop at home since it was released. Both installs have been bomb-proof for me, and the two-dozen or so other people I know who've tried it. And the whole point of using Safari over any other browser - at least on PC - is the gorgeous font rendering, which has been carried over very faithfully from the default text sexiness built into OSX. As a result, reading great streams of online text is now actually approaching "pleasant" -- as opposed to "eye-gougingly uncomfortable". As for the whole keychain thing; the OSX keychain is where all your sensitive information (i.e. saved usernames and accompanying passwords) is stored and encrypted. So when Apple Update asks you to upgrade/change your keychain, it's more than likely because they've improved the encryption and general security of your sensitive data. Just a shame they've fucked up the dialogue box for it.

Trust me, the old "you can have too much of a good thing" adage still holds up even then. Anyway, I'm simultaneously happy and sad about school finishing: Super-quick commute times. Less running around for Mrs V. Kids will be home even more when I'm not. Generally more hassle for Mrs V, as "cabin fever" rapidly sets in.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for anything more than a simple reskinning, just like Double Dragon, Rush'n Attak, Prince of Persia, etc. I doubt they'll even do anything with the sound, but I'm quite happy to be proven wrong. I just hope it plays as well over a network connection as it did sitting next to my mate in front of his Amiga. And never was there a game more deserving of this smiley...

"FIGHT!!!"

"Only a master of evil, tob." Sincerest congratulations.

They're also porting an HD update of Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe to XBLA, too. I'm much more excited about that to be honest.

"Don't worry, he's not that desperate!" Had me howling. Really great. (And thirded; the original film is brilliant.)