Wrestlevania

OK, it's pretty simple (which is the core theme of bit Generations): You race from left to right against five other 'dots'. You're always the second slowest to start each race, so you must use skill to take the shortest route to the finish and beat your opponents. Every course is essentially linear, but littered with objects and chicanes which you must dodge. When you turn, you slow down, so the idea is to alter your course as little as possible - in order to be fastest and win. You cannot ride along an identical path to any of your opponents, because the 'stream' they leave behind forces you away from their path slightly. You can, however, gain a speed boost by following an opponents' 'stream' as closely as possible - thus allowing you to catch up and overtake the leader. As you can see, there are a few basic rules to take into account. But once you've got those down, winning is simply a question of raw skill (no blue shells here!). I've now gotten hold of Dialhex and Boundish, but haven't had the chance to play either yet. Once I have, I'll post my thoughts on those too. NB: The rest of the bit Generations titles aren't out until later this year I believe.

Fair do's - that does look pretty cool. I know this game is part of the Simple 2000 Series, but I still think The Zombie vs. Ambulance is perhaps a missed opportunity. That's all. The developers evidently have vivid imaginations, but all their undead ideas don't seem to have come together very well--despite the huge amounts of polish evident in that video. Do you know if it has multiplayer? Racing against other ambulances would be a riot I think, especially if you could ram your opponent(s) for extra points.

...but you struggle to finish a whole one?

Plays like Carmageddon ...but without any other cars Boss fights! ...they look cumbersome and dull (going by this clip alone) Neat graphical touches (i.e. the automatic signals on the ambulance at junctions) Alarmingly short draw distance Seems to have distinct characters throughout Their seemingly-random exclaimations ("Good work!") freezing gameplay will get annoying within seconds Still a bargain at that price though. That is all.

I know exactly what you mean. The soundtracks to Streets of Rage I & II are still my most favourite pieces of game music ever--they're just bursting with attitude and menace, and made my MegaDrive sing.

Nicely done. I'm "only" at 96% but it still has me coming back months after I finished the main story. Just need to find how you open the catacombs under the main town, where the two different shops are, and I think that'll be 100% for me too.

I'll post a mini-round-up as a new thread, once I've played some of the others in the next few days or so (fingers crossed). Same here, re: feelings towards dotstream. Did you hear that that particular bit Generations title sold out on launch day in Japan? Impressive. Dialhex looks to be the least complicated overall to me, something akin to Tetris in terms of its accessibility - and immediacy - of play. Haven't a clue about the other five titles though; DigiDrive in particular looks completely bat-shit.

Based on the over-complicated travesty that is Worms 4: Mayhem, I'd whole-heatedly say, "hell yes".

I take it you must be a FilePlanet subscriber to get access to the beta?

Crap, that's another game on the Really Must Play Sometime list which I'd forgotten about. Anyone know what the difference is - apart from being released 3-4 years later and roughly twice the file size - between Battlecruiser 3000* and Battlecruiser Millennium*? As for what I'm playing right now, I've stalled in KotOR2 and rapidly lost interest in Quake 4 on Xen (i.e. Prey). I've actually been enjoying some personally-engineered melodrama in Second Life the most in all honesty. Portable-wise, I've played a little of bit Generations title dotstream, which is great - especially the music - and will likely turn anyone who plays it into a minimalist speed freak. I'm hoping to try some of the other bit Generations titles later this month, but I'm stuck (again) in The Minish Cap so I should really get that finished first. * Free games alert!

Certainly does--hurray for the 2D revival! I'm still pinning my hopes on a GBA version of Behemoth's super-violent beat 'em up Dad 'N Me.

You do have to be patient while the NiWiFi service locates opponents for you. And yes; thousands of people are still playing it--my Friend Code is in my profile if you fancy a whipping some time. PS: Fag.

In celebration of the recent announcement that 'Krazy Ken' will be making what is bound to be a another memorable speech at this year's Tokyo Game Show, I thought I should pay homage to everyone's favourite outspoken Video game spokesperson with the following effigy:

What, you don't need to rely on the portal gun anymore to win?

"Start as you mean to go on," I always say.

A friend just sent me this and I think it's brill:

That looks suuuuuperb - can't wait to pluck my own hairy onions! I finally got to play dotstream yesterday, and it's great.

Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside!

They'll need something the size of Cyberdyne to meet demand; "Terminator 4: Rise of the Plastic Seven-Legged Kinda-Elephant-Like Things, only in theatres this fall!" And I bet said abominations still out-perform The Governator. Mind you, that's not so tough is it - even for an inanimate blob of vinyl.

It's Mars from Holst's The Planets* symphony (one of my most favourite pieces of classical music). * You can download a performance** of Mars from Wikipedia in Ogg Vorbis format. ** Unfortunately, it doesn't feature that sublime car horn solo.

What a jaded existence I have led up until just discovering this wondrous pair; hot in a champagne glass indeed. Another missed cartoon show to go on the list, just below Invader Zim. We now return you to our irregularly-scheduled Gallery of Recoil.

You know, Portal could be a player training exercise for when Valve introduce portal-based gameplay into a forthcoming episode...

Ah. That's me not realising that the figure you appear to be 'chasing' in some of the footage is actually yourself.

...wow. Might have some chronic balance issues me thinks, but still; credit to Valve for being brave. Hopefully the finished environment won't be quite so bland and 'functional' either. I expect the game's emphasis will be squarely on the use strategy and cunning. Looking forward to seeing more.

I'd be stunned if this were the case. Watching the popularity of The IT Crowd, from day-one, spread like wildfire globally from here in the UK was quite phenomenal. Channel 4 also paid a small fortune to promote the show across the country beforehand, via billboards, bus stop posters and numerous TV ad clips. I would imagine Graham Linehan is busily writing the second series right now to be honest. The DVD release of the first series is finally out in October and I'm sure Channel 4 are expecting to shift a massive number of copies, which they likely will (and rightly deserve to). And, besides, it's not like Richard Ayoade's sat on his hands until The IT Crowd started filming; witness the thoroughly brilliant Nathan Barley, another biting, computer geek-themed sitcom involving the seminal Chris Morris (this time as co-writer rather, than distinctly unhinged company CEO).