Wrestlevania

That's right folks, you're friendly neighbourhood Argos *may* have this 4-in-1 pack available for in-store collection right now! Or it may not. Check online now and reserve for collection to avoid gross disappointment - just like me!

Off to a local UK premiere of Alpha Dog tonight, which looks promising. I know it's been out in the US for aaages, so - without giving anything away - what's the general consensus? Also I finally rewatched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night and this time I think I watched "The Right Way" - because it was superb.

Troll.

Play.com are already selling GH2 (360) in the UK. Maybe I'll get it for Father's Day present this year, in May...

Featuring controllers 'inspired' by the likes of Tenacious D and Suicide Girls, the bidding has already started.

Why the fuck not??? Good luck.

Remember: drugs are bad, children. M'kay?

Well, I won't pretend I can top that. But Milkman Dan remains a firm (dark and disturbing) milky favourite.

But now I'm back, baby - yeah! Picked up a 360 last week and now I'm usually online between 10pm and 12am (BST) weeknights, so if anyone fancies some Gears of War or Crackdown just fire over an invite! Meantime, I need to go through the list here as I've only added a couple of you so far. PS: MyGamerCard.net seems much more reliable than a couple of the other similar services I've tried in the past.

Well, there's been hacked multiplayer GTA since Vice City on the PC. But Rockstar's primary focus has been - to date - exclusively about driving* the one player narrative. Which is to be commended, but I think perhaps they were waiting until suitable horsepower** and infrastucture were in place before looking at multiplay. Even if it's just star gazing, I'm hopeful all the same. * ** :hah:

It was even better in multiplayer. Oh to have official multiplayer (even co-op) GTA...

I'm about 4 episodes (or more) behind again, but after all the BSG bashing I've read online in the last month - more than a little of it well-justified - I've no real impetus to catch up. Which makes me sad, as there isn't really anything else on TV that I actually care about.

Would.

Honestly? I've watched it twice and it's made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up both times by the end. I think it'd be foolish to write this off as simply a prettier version of GTA 3--especially as I think Rockstar North will be taking design cues from Bully, making the game all about the narrative and (superb voice) acting. Also, don't discount just how much better considerably more powerful hardware could make the series, specifically in terms of AI and physics. (The GTA franchise really needs to toughen up in both of these aspects, if it wants to rise above imitators like Saints Row and Crackdown.) And whilst a female protagonist would've been welcome, I don't think we've been left wanting with our Eastern Bloc friend in the trailer; truckloads of potential here, especially with the allusion to escaping a remote and tragic past. For the record, I loved Vice City - but was never excited about it beforehand. But this one I'm genuinely looking forward to even more now.

Thanks. Traditionally I never play FPS games on anything less than medium/hard as a rule, but I'm struggling to translate my well-practised mouse movement into just moving my thumb around right now, so I wasn't enjoying the game all that much at that difficulty. I played Gears co-op last night with a friend and he set the game up on the easiest difficulty; there's definitely a big difference, but it was also more fun to progress steadily through the game, rather than having to replay sections over and over. Well, I've absolutely no plans to get an HD TV any time just yet. I've not had any difficulty with on-screen text so far though, in Gears, Crackdown or PGR3. Heh, I'm already chasing your top score on Geometry Wars! When I set my machine up the other night I already had a friend request from Aussie Ben (cheers dude), which was pretty cool. (I've already beaten his top score though, mwah-hah-hah-ha!) Yeah, sounds good. I've been playing multiplayer since the original Doom and co-op has always been my favourite mode by miles. It's because Xbox 360 looks like it's going to lean towards having plenty of co-op support that I went for the system over anything else (oh alright--the Wii). I really enjoyed playing Gears co-op last night, but it's Crackdown that I keep hearing so much about so that would be cool. I just hope the time difference (I'm on GMT+1) won't get in the way.

Yeah, I was pretty much along the same lines. However, like any RPG worth its salt, certain weapon types are more effective against certain enemies. For example, skeletal creatures are most effectively despatched with bludgeoning weapons, whereas fleshy creatures are best hacked up with a sharp blade of some sort. However, I played the game much like you; I was chasing down the ultimate samurai sword, which kicked huge amounts of arse and was insanely quick to wield as well. And the reach on that thing--phenominal! This comes down to what I was saying above regarding the effectiveness of specific weapons for specific enemies.

My experience was, as I progressed though the game, I moved from playing it as a beat 'em up platformer to more like a simplistic RPG. By this I mean I went from just blitzing rooms to collect as much gold as possible to buy new weapons, to focussing on soul collection and soul/weapon fusing to create weapons instead - ones you couldn't buy, either. Also I started experimenting with soul/spell combinations that are hidden in the game, i.e. if you use one of the archery spells and have an archery soul equipped, you get a special combination attack. But I also loved the art style, level+creature design and music a lot too, so that kept me going as well.

"Despatch Rape-Rocket AJAX to violate his body!"

Um, Psychonauts?

Right, I'd like to retract my vote and recast it as something like an 8 or a 9. Here's why: I've been pretty depressed with gaming lately, truth be told; I thought retreading games I'd not previously played or hadn't completed would dispell this, but if anything it's just made it worse. Moreover, the fact my previously-uber laptop now isn't capable of playing games that were released in the latter half of last year has deepened the drudgery. And that broken PS2 I was given has been silently tormenting me, as my efforts to bring it back to life have utterly failed. Having stewed over (read: wallowed in) that for more than a few weeks now, I've decided to ditch PC gaming - including the prerequisite hardware paperchase (thank fuck) - and move my gaming wholesale over to consoles. Or 'console' rather--I'm going to sell my DS. Can't say I'm all that bothered as I think I've gotten most of what I could out of the system already, and don't really play it anymore. There's also just one title I'm looking forward to for the foreseeable future - Phantom Hourglass - and that's getting shifted around all the time anyway. Moreover, it was either that or the Dreamcast--and you can prise SEGA's finest from my cold dead hands, not before! So yeah, GameStation have a superb deal going at the moment which is too good to pass on: Xbox 360 'Premium' + Gears of War + Crackdown + GRAW2 + PGR3 + WWE Smackdown + Xbox Live! Arcade Unplugged + extra wireless controller £304.99 (approx. $495 US before tax) I'm going to pick that little lot up at lunchtime today (all being well), so to say I'm now simply "excited about gaming" would be an understatement. Edit: GRAW2 isn't actually in this particular bundle.

If we're getting defensive, then I'm sticking up for Kingpin - that game was fucking brilliant. Granted, playing it now might show it up as a piece of crap (doesn't a lot of retro gaming?), but for its time the game was superb and is one of the few games I've played through more than once.

I voted 2 because: I bought Battlefield 2142 at the weekend and it's un-fucking-playable on my laptop I have no money for the foreseeable future that I can use to buy a much-needed new PC I can't seem to bring my dead PS2 back to life--a fact which has completely demoralised me on the games blogging front also

I'd try it - FPS are my thing for sure - but I'm concerned that it'd run like shit on my creaking laptop. For instance, it really choked on F.E.A.R. with the visuals above Medium - how demanding is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

-NOOOOO0000000000000000000000000000000....! I hate that! And now I feel bad that you won't get that huge kick out of the ending when/if you read the book either. Heed the warning, people.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts afterward, Yuf.