Wrestlevania

Kind of like this?

"Kinda Goofy." "He's clearly taking the Mickey." Such limitless potential...

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Wrestlevania/ Whoop-whoop! etc.

I certainly wouldn't dismiss Shift either, but let's not fool ourselves: it's prefixed with Need For Speed purely as a marketing vehicle. It's got absolutely nothing - mercifully - to do with any of the previous games (except perhaps Porsche Unleashed, which was a superb racer).

Forza 2 does have surface modelling though, like the treacherous - not to mention utterly foul - tiled start-finish section of the Sebring International circuit: Cars bounce, skip and slide all over that if you're going too fast or try to corner at speed. At 180mph+, it's terrifying, which is why I think I like Forza more than Gran Tourismo. Crashing feels dangerous, whereas in Gran Tourismo it seemed merely an inconvenience--moreover the only way to get a fast time on certain tracks with certain cars was actually use GT's elastic crash barriers to punt your car around a difficult corner at speed. Other tracks, too, are littered with lumps, crests, sudden off-camber changes and so forth. Whilst they might not scan the physical surface of every course, I think Turn 10 do make an excellent job of keeping things varied and interesting over the course of a single lap.

While I've not played either of those two titles, track layout and variation is probably the only gripe I could level begrudgingly at Forza 2. Whereas the original Xbox game had some glorious mountain road tracks and other real world point-to-point routes, Forza 2 is doggedly track-based. That's not to say there isn't variety in the tracks - quite the opposite (Turn 10's rendition of Laguna Seca is exquisite and a delight to tear around) - but it's the only slight disappointment I had with the sequel. Thankfully, it looks like road racing will make a triumphant return in Forza 3!

Thank you, all, for the judicious use of the spoiler tag. I'm hoping to see Moon imminently, so appreciate the discretion. Away from the cinema, I'm on the 7th episode of Ergo Proxy and am completely hooked on it. Long, long time since I watched any anime, but this is about as great a return as I could want. Interesting story, great characters and a really nice art direction and production style. I'm watching a couple of episodes a day at the moment, usually in bed.

It's down to what you want in a racing game--nice to have the choice to be honest. For me, it's nothing more than Forza kept me coming back, whereas Gran Tourismo just got impossibly difficult too soon. (You can buy cars in Forza too, btw!) I guess it's a question of pacing in that regard; I enjoy challenging games, but I also like utterly destroying the competition as often as I might just barely scrape a victory (or loose because of a stupid mistake). Forza's structure and pacing suits my needs really, really well in that way. Regarding the technicalities, Forza 2 doesn't look as good as it might simply because it was an early platform title. I forget the specifics (and can't be bothered to go trawling for them either), but I believe the game approximately runs at around 720i but with clever effects to make it look crisper. There's also no proper anti-aliasing in the second game, which means the cars and scenery can look jagged at times--even on a 1080 HD screen. Forza 3, however, is meant to be a "proper" 1080p game, with full scene anti-aliasing and much more advanced Shader effects this time around. And it's meant to run at a solid 60fps, which the second game wasn't quite up to at times. Basically, I think Forza 2 was one of those many games that get yanked from being an advanced existing platform title into being a decent - although technically inefficient - early next-gen title. Doesn't mean it's not fantastic fun to play though, and none of those "console train-spotter" details bother me in the slightest anyway.

'spose. Not like I've anything better to play on do.

I am a committed petrol head, but I haven't enjoyed many racing games over the years. That said, I bought my original Xbox partly for Forza, but the original felt a little thin and distant (despite the polish). Forza 2, however, I've been playing in prolonged bursts since it was released. I was actually in the grip of my most successful career run to date until, well, you know... If you're even mildly curious about getting a modern, in-depth racer but find the likes of Gran Tourismo suffocting while Need For Speed much too shallow, Forza 2 is pitched perfectly I think. Arcade mode covers everything you'd expect - standardized car classes with no modification and simple modes like Time Trial - but the brilliant physics and sublime controls make it much more than I was hoping for. Career mode, on the other hand, gives you *everything* you could want; class-based championships, regional championships, manufacturer cups, rivalry face-offs - just to name a few. You also get to bolt as many extras to your cars as much or as little as you like; Career mode is so carefully and interestingly paced that the game unlocks decent cars suitable for other cups. So you don't even need to get into fiddling with mods if you don't want to. In short: Forza 2's one of my most favourite games, well, ever. ~shrugs~

I'll assume you meant "tongue". And yes, it does look like it's blowing a raspberry with masterful indifference, now you mention it. The lot of the condemned...

FFS... fixed, again. Just noticed: my Dreamcast appears to be grinning like an idiot, while my Gamecube maintains stoic indifference.

Guesses were correct. I've hosted the image somewhere else now and updated the OP in all it's (miserable) glory. Just printed out my UPS returns label and organised collection for tomorrow--it would've been today, but I had to put the bins out for collection and left the 360 packaged up in the kitchen. As irony would have it, I kept my returns packaging from Microsoft from October last year in case this happened again. Go pessimistic, skeptical me!

So... any of my fellow stiff-shifters up for some reg'lar undead goodness this evening? I know I am.

MechWarrior's CGI sequences were always that impractical, but also very exciting. It's because of their excitement and technical prowess that a friend and I started self-teaching ourselves 3D Studio many years ago. (My ambition during college was to eventually work as a 3D modeller and animator for someone like id Software...) Getting one's nerd on, both of the mechs shown in the new MechWarrior trailer are actually from the original series. But you didn't encounter either until later in the game - the one with the skull (forget the model) was piloted by one of the final bosses in Mercenaries for example. It's probably also worth pointing out that the new MechWarrior game is set quite a few years before the original. So there are no clans yet or anything like that.

Cheating, I do not see it.

Are you new to the Owner's Club, Coldkill?

Yes, granted, an awful lot of people maintain that Mercenaries was the pinnacle of the series. And I'm somewhat enclined to agree with that. But the fourth game was very accessible, looked good and still had an excellent breadth of missions and scenarios. Personally, I'm still hoping for a 3rd Heavy Gear game; in many ways, I think HG2 was even better than Mercenaries...

This does look spectacular, but MechWarrior's about my limit when it comes to sims; I'm awful at them. Edit: Which reminds me...

The demo was - in a word - atrocious, despite my initial enthusiasm for it. I almost had a nosebleed just trying to understand how the interface worked.

X19AgtvM6KA

Been taking a little trip down EDM lane today, and rediscovered this incredible track by PQM and Luke Chable: 1HyS80Uf9a8 Easily one of my favourite tracks of all time--it's an absolute powerhouse.

I had no idea. As I mentioned, it's never been an issue in the past. But then maybe that's just the way Bungie in particular choose to write their net code for co-op; if their synchronisation instructions are more NAT-dependent than e.g. GTA4... Meh, hopefully things will just be a lot smoother next time out.

You "shit and quit," more like. Having gotten that sudden NAT-related message flash up after so much lag in the co-op game this week, I've a horrible suspicion it could've been me causing those awful delays. Helpfully, Microsoft directs you to www.xbox.com/networkhelp - but click the link and see just how helpful that really is! Stupid cunts... anyway: I used Google (lol) to find the actual settings I needed, have just fucked about with my router, and now my Xbox 360 connects to Live in a split second. It used to pause for several moments before registering connection to the network. Curiously, this has never been an issue when playing Grand Thumb Auto, and it certainly didn't slow me down in matchmaking tonight either (unlike co-op). Regardless; I think I owe you lovely, patient people an apology...

After several aborted attempts, n0wak and myself had a jolly good romp late last week. We took on the whole of the Covenant in a couple of Scorpion tanks, and n0wak managed to expertly grab me a skull I hadn't retrieved the last time I had played through Halo 3. Twas ace! I'm up for some more co-op tonight, 9pm STD, if anyone else cares to join me.