Wrestlevania

This has reminded me to come back to the game again. The mod seems excellent after a short time's play, but the shader add-ons caused me some very weird glitches. Going into [Stalker folder]/gamedata/shaders and then zipping up all the content before deleting it (except for the zip) left the mod intact except for the visual effects stuff. It means you still get all the textures, game fixes and other stuff, but I was seeing these weird vertical black bars - like giant barcodes - moving over the scenery around me. I guess it's because my gfx card might only be Shader 2.0-capable? Regardless, small tip for you if you experience the same problem. Thanks also, Dan, for the book recommendation. Been able to read that using Adobe Reader Lite on my Nokia phone and it's really good so far.

Bumping this thread, as I'll be on tonight from 9pm BST and hope to see some of you reg'lars there too. Are we going to attempt the user-created Death Aboard campaign this time, or did I miss that last week? I have it installed now if anyone fancies it (again).

So this has just happened, for the second time: Which means you can count me out of any 360-related festivities for the remainder of July, and probably all of August too.

Out of morbid curiosity, has anyone tried playing PSP games over the Internet using a service like XBConnect or XLink Kai?

The prospect of Monster Hunter is really exciting, but I found what the reviews I read were saying to be very true: you ideally need to be playing co-op with at least one experienced person to really get into it. It's a ruthless game - at least in the early portion - and is quite unforgiving towards the beginner. And, as mentioned here, the controls take a while to wrap your head around--mainly because they're context-sensitive, depending on what weapon you're currently using.

For all my bile, Tekken: Dark Resurrection is a superb game and is one of the very rare gems I've come across that really does the PSP justice. Likewise God of War: Chains of Olympus, but that suffers from a lack of replayability for me. However I found it superb on my first playthrough, having not experienced the God of War series prior to that. Other than those two, my only other stand-out game would be Ridge Racer 2 which, whilst not technically astounding like the others above, is executed brilliantly and is supremely playable and moreish (just like Ridge Racer should be!). I've tried WipeOut Pure, but didn't enjoy it--and I've never enjoyed any WipeOut except for their soundtracks. Rock Band Unplugged is good, but flawed in my opinion. It's got lots of fun songs, but I'm awful at rhythm games for a start and so with that and the PSP's uncomfortable controls I found it frustrating at times. It is fun though and very polished. Metal Gear AC!D is another game I really liked the prospect of, but just couldn't get into the execution. Turn-based portable games just seem like such a brilliant idea, and coupled with something action-orientated like Metal Gear, it's a great prospect. But I found once I got so far through it I didn't really feel compelled to finish the game. Similarly, LocoRoco is a game I really enjoyed to begin with, but got bored of after a while. And coupling that with my abysmal rhythm game abilities, you can guess how I got on with Patapon.

So, given how generally miserable and disregarded the PSP's library is already, what is there now in PSPgo to draw me to the platform over iPhone (buzz, desirability, usefulness) or DS (buzz, library, ubiquity)? My point is that by adding More, it's my opinion that Sony are detracting from the platform still further. PlayStation Portable - as a brand idea - was brilliant, but it has not had the support from Sony to drive the library, or the interest in development from third-parties. By adding a touchscreen and a downloadable games portal, Sony can expend even less effort on the machine, but also make it easier still to quickly and cheaply port titles designed for other platforms and get them on there too. It's an - admittedly clever - illusion of support and rejuvenation for the platform, but all I can see it resulting in is the PSP becoming even more irrelevant in the face of overwhelming competition from iPhone / iPod Touch, now billed explicitly as a portable games machine by Apple, let's not forget, and Nintendo's superb DS, with it's mammoth platform-specific library and fantastic third-party support. Either make it a PlayStation - and everything that implies (twin sticks, dedicated development, tremendous third-party support) - or just kill it.

Yes, for primarily monetary reasons. I appreciate this makes developer's lives simpler, but it dilutes the platform yet further. Especially as you can now easily port all the iPhone shovelware to it as well!

To cut right to it: I think the PSP is probably the worst console I've ever owned. If you're thinking of getting a portable, get a DS. The PSP's catalogue of games is, in my opinion, risible at best--cheaply farted-out PS2 knock offs at worst. And banal, one-dimensional Convert-o-Matic shovelware is basically all the PSP is reliable for. Oh and hobbled control systems, too. Just look at any well-known reviews site and browse their PSP section; even IGN isn't desperate enough to review games for PSP more than once every 6 weeks or more. It sounds stupid, but I genuinely hate it as a platform; it's such a limp-wristed "I suppose we should make a portable, kinda" device that it has no idea what it wants to be. And now they've pointlessly, mindlessly, unthinkingly glued a touch screen onto the front of it. That still doesn't address the fact that the PSP is one of the most cripplingly uncomfortable handheld devices I've ever used, regardless of whether it was a portable console or a badly damaged power drill. Who thought trying to grip a wide, narrow brick by scalping your hands into claws and pinching onto the very corners was a good idea? If it was cheap enough to post it to you, you could have mine for nothing. The only time it gets any attention is if I want to take a particularly lazy dump--and it's almost certainly run itself flat - again - by then anyway. Did I mention this is all coming from someone who got given their PSP for nothing in the first place..? I didn't even part with cash for it, and I still begrudge how shit it is. Awful, awful contraption.

Everybody knows that something you've made probably involves a hole for your penis at some point.

I applied to Dundee University in the hopes of taking a gap year with DMA Design, but was told I didn't actually get a place on the course I wanted when I got there. So I came all the way home again--about a 500 mile round trip in 2 days. As it turns out, DMA moved to Edinburgh before I would've gotten my gap year anyway. DMA founder David Jones is still in Dundee though, having founded what became Real Time Worlds (makers of Crackdown) when Take-Two bought DMA about the time my course would've ended.

There's a much easier way. Just Google what time is it in England?

T-minus ~7hrs! I'll only be able to play for a little bit though, as I need to help a friend out later tonight.

Yup! Busy boys.

Wow, I remember that... one of Psygnosis' last original games for the Amiga, I believe. And look who it's made by, too! That's Rockstar North of old, that is. Used to play that at my neighbour's house and we'd take turns at either shooting with the mouse or controlling the mech with the keyboard. It was the first sort of twin control computer games we'd played at that point and we found it hard as nails.

I'd forgotten about this. MekTek have issued an update regarding the re-release of MechWarrior 4: Fucking red tape... And that's not because I'm impatient or ungrateful, but from bitter personal experience on a day-to-day basis. On the flip side, however, it sounds like they're making a real effort to launch the game at a modern level by creating their own distribution platform ["Stop groaning at the back!"] and match-making platform called MTX:

Our venerable Thumb overlord is a year older on this glorious Thursday! Happy Birthday, Chris.

Ah ha! I didn't realise that was a Thumb, so ignored it--nothing personal! Adding you now...

What a joke... In my mind, that makes EDGE Games - as a publishing house - about as "professional" as the guys you see hawking stolen films/games at the local car boot sale.

Good luck, Groucho. No idea what that's like, but wish you well all the same.

Funnily enough, that's how it happened last time; someone working for the national postal service was stealing cards at a sorting office and syphoning them off to some sort of petty cartel.

Wrestle's Guide to Counter-Fraud and Card Security Never use your credit/debit card, ever; instead, burn it on arrival. [see 1]

Good luck, Nachimir! qVOAcADIamE

Fixed. But yes, it was very, very funny. But not quite as funny as our fire truck racing shenanigans at the airport... ~ wibbly flashback effect ~ I'm well in the lead towards the end of lap two when my younger daughter suddenly bursts in declaring she needs the toilet. I tell her it's OK and usher her out to the loo, whereupon I turn back to the game and accidentally brush the 'Y' button by mistake. My character promptly bails out of the fire truck and cartwheels along the tarmac for a dozen-or-so feet before coming to a ragged, tangled stop (my fire truck ambling to a crawl in the background). By the time I get to my feet, bastard James has arrived on the scene and proceeds to blast me with water from his fire engine, effectively pinning me to the ground for several moments. After being washed off my feet for the third time, I notice a rapidly approaching spec on the horizon, heading straight towards our two fire engines. Turns out it's Patters, in a newly-procured sports car (his fire engine having likely been grenaded earlier on). And the bugger drives right over me at top speed and whizzes off into the distance! I couldn't breath I was laughing so much--absolutely brilliant.

As I mentioned in chat at the time, James was personally redefining the phrase "mercilessly fucked-with" via the magic of AK-47 and my pliant virtual visage.