Wrestlevania

I'm all for freedom of expression and not banning or going mother-fucking mental about Video game content. But sometimes, you have to actually help yourselves in this regard; keeping that in would've been a bad idea--and would be no less malignant and pointlessly "red top baiting" today either. How is this any different to the righteous indignation we all apparently had towards Manhunt 2's lack of self-control?

My PS3 resistance is beginning to crumble...

Actually, I'd invited a friend over for some co-op gaming that night. My 360 red ringed as soon as I switched it on. So we played Dreamcast instead, which I believe is celebrating it's 10th birthday this week..? Maybe not cartridges then, just not cheap, hurried chipset design either, eh?!

Yep, mine choked for the second time last night; had invited a friend 'round for some gaming, too. Bastard device. Played on Dreamcast all night instead, which is 10 years old this week and still fighting fit... Still, called MS this morning and they're sending someone to collect it next week at no cost--even though it's long out of warranty. Something at least, though I'd rather it didn't break in the first place. Can we all admit cartridges were the right way to go now..?

For a semi-complete list of Thumbs already using Twitter, have a look through the Idle Twits thread. And make sure you add yourself if haven't done so already!

I certainly couldn't care less.

I thought the Dead Space comic book was superb, except for the mysterious decision to ridiculously sensor the language from the second episode onwards. Seemed like a conceited and entirely pointless action to me.

BURN THE WITCH!

I have very few hours a week for gaming nowadays, so I'm turning into an elitist snob.

Dead Space seems like a missed opportunity, judging by the few genuinely considered accounts of play I've been reading. I was quite looking forward to it, but it seems to be fairly pedestrian in it's general execution and challenge. I was really hoping Dead Space would in fact be Resident Evil (4) in Space, with a good dollop of System Shock, Event Horizon and Sunshine mixed in for good measure. But it all just sounds a bit forgettable, ultimately. Which makes me sad.

Yes, it's based on complete guesswork and supposition. I'm not intentionally trying to berate anyone here, just thinking out loud on why things might be the way they might be.

If no-one can really agree on how to use this phrase, it begs the question: should I give a fuck?

Ah, but that was a different environment (i.e. the much lamented Looking Glass) to 2K Boston. From what I can make out, peering in through Looking Glass's virtual windows, LG was a collection of hugely talented, very "characterful" individuals that were so bloody minded together to make great things. It's my feeling that Ken, now working more or less on his own in relative terms, sticks out like a sore thumb. That's not to imply 2K Boston don't give a shit either--BioShock speaks volumes for itself in that regard. It's just my opinion.

50 Cent: Eleventy Tonnes of Shit is so close to being published, I can almost see the undigested niblets of gaming sweetcorn from here!

Mmm, good point: superb installment, gents. I was LOL-ing loudly in the car this morning - "strategy chocolate" indeed. Could we have your thoughts on indie gaming in an upcoming episode, please? It's a very healthy niche at the moment--so much so that I feel like I'm starting to loose the wood amongst the trees.

That's the way I always say it my head, pumping furiously.

Podcasts are my radio. (I despise terrestrial radio in the UK, it's uniformally shit.) I drive about 2.5hrs a day, commuting, so stocking up on a few talky podcasts really helps make it much better. I've several non-talky music podcast subscriptions though, which I listen to whilst actually working.

My mistake, I thought he'd left.

Love is a forthcoming indie MMO, designed by Eskil Steenberg. And Rock, Paper, Shotgun have got their hands on a world exclusive pre-alpha trailer. If I recall correctly, the entire game is procedurally generated, from buildings to the individual leaves on the trees (as well as the trees themselves). However, it looks like there's some sort of building mechanic for players in this trailer, as it's clear some sort of claymation-like construction is happening in the middle. I've been keeping an eye on Love since the first screens came out a good few months ago. It looks wonderful if you ask me, from an aesthetics point of view, and I'm looking forward to giving it a try at some point. (I'm also hoping the final in-game music is a beautiful as that in the trailer.) The only slight downside I can see is all the apparent gore and violence in the game. I was hoping this would be something more sophisticated and exploration/adventure-led. Instead, it looks like a cross between Multiwinia and SOLDAT in that trailer, with some Populous-like elements thrown in. Just have to wait and see I guess. But I was expecting a peaceful sort of experience, where you could meet up online and just take pleasure in exploring with your friends. Edit: *gasp* You can download the theme from the Love trailer on musician Ian Dorch's website! Edit edit: My mistake; it seems my original suspicions surrounding Love's gameplay premise were correct, and that war is just a possible outcome of players all being in-world together.

Yeah, that got me for a moment too. Unfortunately, Half-Life 2 really did decide to crash as I was installing it at exactly the same moment. Sympathy crashing... Maybe they are becoming sentient after all.

Having originally been very hopeful for Fallout coming to consoles, I've just watched Bethesda's E3 '08 demo of Fallout 3 [2:33+] and am immensely disappointed at this stage. Whilst the environment realisation and detail looks promising, the colour palette seems to alternate wildly between overly drab and completely washed out, obscuring numerous facets in the landscape as well as many objects populating it. I'm also really underwhelmed by how stiff and robotic the characters and their animations looks to be. For example, the player viewpoint features no bob or sway whatsoever whilst travelling over rough ground; it feels like you're driving a slow hovercraft, not running rough-shod over piles of rubble. The gun-play, too, looks equally soulless and uninteresting. VATS appears to have some potential, but seems to be more about automating what already appears to be a fun-free process than about strategy. There's just no real evidence here of anything new or revolutionary in the world of console shooters. Which has me wondering: what are Bethesda trying to achieve here, creatively? I really don't want this to be a cashing-in exercise. Has anyone seen anything a bit more encouraging at this point?

I would imagine he means, for example, a moron - knowingly or otherwise - installs a pirated version, doesn't have a genuine disc and therefore can't get the game to run without help. So he calls the publisher's tech support. It sounds like bullshit, but I'm not so sure it's that much of a fringe case to be honest. There's much more to piracy than just torrenting; people selling mass cloned knock-offs at local markets and garage / car boot sales are fairly commonplace, still, in my experience.

Given the mind-bending complexity of all the AI and environment systems involved in Left 4 Dead, I would imagine patches and improvements would be a - ahem - "dead cert". I've not tried any Source-based games on my "new" (old) desktop at home yet, but I'm sorely tempted by Left 4 Dead.

You spend more than a moment looking at the comments on any popular torrent site - for whatever reason - and it readily becomes apparent that there are a lot of fucking stupid people with Internet connections out there...

Thumbroll: I was going to be no more clever than compiling this as a lable in Google Reader and then making that label public. Works quite nicely--I'll do that now and post the URL here. Edit: OK, here's the Thumbroll according to the staff list on the front page (minus Nick / ShackNews RSS feed).