Wrestlevania

Perhaps -- might watch it again this weekend if I have time.

Watched Eternal Sunshine for the first time last weekend with Mrs. W. Neither of us was overly impressed to be honest and I'd guessed the twist well before halfway through (fat-head that I suppose I am). Very nicely shot, however, and a decent enough piece of cinema. Just felt let down after all the gushing praise I've read for it all over the 'net; Fight Club was far more striking a 'head-fucker' in my (not-so-humble) opinion. As for noir-ish stuff, I've had a copy of Half Nelson kicking around for a few weeks now but haven't watched it yet. Might be up your street though, Marek, going by PIXELSURGEON's review.

Dawn of Sorrow is definitely one of my all-time favourite games. Very well designed and has a great plot, which draws you in and makes you want to complete the game "properly". On a slight tanget; I was given Animal Crossing: Wild World as part of my leaving present this week when I changed jobs. (A copy of the original V for Vendetta graphic novel was the other part; quality.) I wasn't quite sure of it at first as the game starts very slowly. More people are moving into my village now, however, which is livening things up quite a bit. There are also new fish and insects appearing every day too, which makes aimlessly roaming around even more fun. Donating an example of each species to the local museum (rather than just selling them to help pay off your mortgage) makes for a surprisingly satisfying game mechanic. I also picked up my first Gyroid yesterday; I think my house will be filled with as many as I can find in all honesty--they're stupidly collectible. It's safe to say that Animal Crossing: Wild World is completely unlike anything I've played before - and very 'zen' - and I'm beginning to understand why people might love it so much. When I get my wifi sorted out, fellow Thumbateers are welcome to come and visit!

Eurogamer is reporting that Sony have cut the number of PlayStation 3 consoles available at launch yet again, the number this time dwindling from 100,000 to just 80,000. Sony have cited difficulties with limited supplies of components being the primary cause. Speculation is now rampant that this - coupled with Sony's recent agressive action towards grey importers Lik-Sang - will have a direct and significant impact on the European launch date. Pessimistic estimations stretch to as late as Christmas 2007, depending on whether or not Sony can firm up their component supply lines over the coming months. How crap.

Ah, I did wonder. Never seen her out of her armour before though... Well sure, but why bother revitalising the Kid Icarus brand - for a whole new generation of gamers who likely missed out on the original - if you weren't going to do anything more than just a cameo of it's main character? I really want Nintendo to do a new Icarus adventure, and it seems like they may be testing the waters with Pit's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl first.

That looks very pretty and the character roster is certainly diverse. Looking forward to finally sampling Smash Bros. with this outing. And surely that video puts to rest the rumours of a new Kid Icarus title being in the works at long last?! Here's hoping. PS: Erm, who's the blonde?

That's me screwed by default then. If it turns out not to be too demanding then I might give it a shot. I struggled to get into the first one though, to be honest, so I'm hoping this one might have better 'hooks' for me personally than the last one did. A friend absolutely adored the original, and he and I both love tabletop role playing games anyway, so I was somewhat frustrated that I didn't find NWN compelling enough to really get stuck into it.

That's cool, vimes - easily done. Bet you're bitterly missing cartridges on home systems as well then, yeah? I have been thinking about this whole installation thing though, with PS3, and got to thinking: what if you need to install some games in order to get the best performance/physics/graphics/whatever out of them?

As opposed to 15-30 seconds load time otherwise? ...seriously? Right, because there's no way you could, I dunno... perhaps just stream what was needed for the current part of the game into RAM as required? Call me insane, but it's just an idea.

I had to power drill one of the locks out of my front door this morning, because the lock mechanism broke leaving the bolt still in the door frame, therefore preventing me - and anyone else - from getting in or out. And all before breakfast time! How exciting has your day been so far?

Installs do not appear to be mandatory. Subsequent load time improvement for installed games seems negligible (25-50% decrease). Non-installed load times seem relatively quick anyway (15-30 seconds depending on the game). All of which leaves me wondering: what's the point of offering an installation option in the first place..?

Ha - that's 3 minutes' walk from my (current) office!

Keeping with Marek's restrospective theme, I didn't get home from work until 23:57 yesterday. And I still only got 3 software bugs fixed in 15 hours...

That's the Birmingham one in December -- or are they having an equivalent show later on in Bristol as well? Couldn't see anything on that site suggesting it being the case though. Cut 'n' Paste Gremlins methinks.

Are you sure you can't fly direct to Birmingham from a (main) Spanish airport? You can from Bristol International - and Birmingham's a much bigger place - so I'd be surprised if you couldn't. Might cheaper for you to bus up/down/over to a Spanish airport that flies direct in the long run to be honest. Just a thought... Also: a ticket from Bristol Temple Meads train station to Birmingham Central is approximately £40 (return), departing 06:15 on the 9th and catching the return train at 19:10 on the 10th. And the hotels are likely to be a decent amount cheaper in Bristol than London I'd imagine, so that might be an alternative for you. Certainly isn't London though (even if we do have a very good Forbidden Planet).

No, say I! So... I agree -- that does seem a logical place to split the potential screenplay in two. Those giant spiders were bloody horrible in the book. Seeing as how Jackson's crew did a phenomenal job recreating Shelob* for LoRT, they'd loose none of that edge in the translation to the big screen. I'm all for this, personally. Especially if splitting the film in two allows Jackson to bring out the finer of Tolkein's brilliant story facets that simply had to be passed over for LoTR. I was gutted the scene with the Barrow-wights didn't appear during The Fellowship of The Ring. Definitely wasn't upset about Tom Bombadil's extrication from The Two Towers storyline, though, it must be said... * Best Tolkien baddie EVA!

Poor bastard wouldn't stand a chance... :\

On the subject of documentaries; the BBC's latest series of Horizon continues to entertain as much as it informs -- tonight's Bill Nighy-narrated DARPA Grand Challenge chronicle entitled The Great Robot Race being no exception. If you can find them, I'd recommend watching either tonight's installment or the series-opening Survivors Guide to Plane Crashes as a taster of what to expect. Fascinating stuff.

The car you're refering to (I'm guessing) is the Volvo YCC: An interesting project, the results of which I'd certainly not describe (deride?) as 'girly'. I'm convinced the results of a similar games-related project would be no less successful or appealing either. The question is: which publisher is going to be first to take this topic seriously and actually commit the time and resources necessary?

You must have a Japanese language version -- it works flawlessly for me. All in English too. Try downloading this version, which has a complimentary English patch. And if this is a fan-based translation, it's bloody fantastic!

Thanks for the clarification, SpiderMonkey. I haven't played New Super Mario Bros., but the Mario Bros. series in general has always been about short, varied levels. These translate well into what might be referred to as "highly portable" games, because they can be consumed as intended through very short periods of play. You'll recall that the Grand Theft Auto series originally started along very much the same vain, with most missions lasting no more than a handful of minutes at a time. However, the GTA series underwent a radical gameplay shift with the introduction of 3D, not only with the graphics but also with the depth of the story and the mission complexity/duration. To whit: the original release of Vice City Stories had several missions which, if played to completion, could take more than an hour to finish successfully. Using that example as a reference, I don't feel the experience would translate well to a portable console without first undergoing some optimisation for the target system's implied shorter play times. Supporting instant game saves would go most of the distance in addressing this problem, but would not provide the outright solution. (Whether the PSP is capable of this or not, for logistical reasons, is academic.) Absolutely not. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has become one of my favourite games of all time and, last time I checked, I had played it in excess of 15 hours. But it's when this play typically occurs - and for how long - that people take issue with the term "portable". What I'm trying to say is that straight conversion just wouldn't work in many of cases, but a little tweaking is often all that's required. Failing to do this annoys people, because it's bad/lazy design for seemingly no reason.

That - along with your suggestions - is exactly what I meant by "fundamentally bad design". Don't get me wrong; the PSP is a very impressive piece of kit and I wouldn't mind one myself -- just this morning I was getting moist reading all about Vice City Stories. But I don't think that many developers are really making the most of what's there and what it has to offer gamers.

Continuing with the double-team... Quite. I like how choosing not to accept fundamentally bad design automatically makes me some rabid [F-word] fucktard. A direct clone of a game that was superb on a home system does not automatically a superb portable game make. Play styles are entirely different and failure to comprehend and embrace that means failure to make a decent portable game.

'fraid not, dear. The people who have the money for this sort of thing promote the games they think will make them the most money.

...over a cynical "straight conversion" of a home console title?! "Damn them!" a Sony executive didn't say. No appreciation for the medium is as good as no appreciation at all.