Wrestlevania

Posting on behalf of Mr 'n'Clue:

Suitably evil and I heartily approve.

Like we needed a better reason to hate the cardboard prick. I had no idea he'd behaved in this way; instantly near the top of my all-time hate list.

One concurs.

Been meaning to post that I watched Batman: Gotham Knight a couple of weeks ago. For those who've not heard of it, it's a six-part collaboration between six renowned Japanese anime directors. It's an interesting, hugely varied and engaging look at the myth of Batman, from the perspectives of Gotham's citizens and Bruce Wayne himself. It's dark, gritty and very enjoyable. Worth a punt on DVD if you're looking for a collector's piece.

I was going to post much the same last night, but spent the evening decorating so couldn't get to my PC. Yes, 'rushing' in Starcraft fundamentally doesn't work; unit balance has always been so good that it quickly turns into a massacre for even a moderately experienced player. The fact unit balance is just so good in Starcraft is why it's still a top-tier tournament game around the world. And Blizzard will not be throwing that advantage and enthusiasm down the pan with Starcraft 2. I believe the game was effectively "finished" several months ago, but they've been tweaking and tweaking unit balance ever since. And, to get back on-topic, I don't see any reason why a company with as much resource as EA won't do the same. If Red Alert 3 launches with tank rushing still as a fundamental short cut to winning, it'll be too much of a throwback in the wake of games like Supreme Commander and Dawn of War.

Company of Heroes does sound good; setting up my "new" (as in "old"--but replacing my "dead" laptop) computer some time in the next few days, so I'll definitely give that another try. It crawled horribly on my laptop when I first tried it over a year ago. As for Command & Conquer, it was the game that invented tank rushing. And I could imagine a rather large outcry from the faithful if this wasn't still the case. I can take it or leave it myself. I find computer opponents spammy and annoying, whereas playing in an alliance against friends was great fun. But to recap: Woo! Proper desktop gaming, I return to you at last!

Seems only fitting to me.

Already started, beginning fundamentally with attacking the US Legal System.

Agreed; I attempted to read a hardware "review" last week that was blatantly a padded-out press release, with basically no effort to disguise this fact. What was most alarming was the dozen or so "great review!!!" comments after it... if they're not getting slammed for it by their audience, they'll just keep getting away with it. And no, they certainly won't all follow suit; they'll continue to do whatever completes their words-per-article/posts-per-day metrics as quickly, easily and cheaply as possible. That's why things are so lazy and shit right now.

Jesus, people are A-holes... On the positive side: I pre-ordered a shiny, shiny new Nokia N96 on Wednesday, which should arrive the middle of next week. Very excited!

As much as I dislike RTS games, I've always had a soft spot for Red Alert 2. I'm definitely following this with interest...

Thank goodness for mergers and acquisitions! Edit: Update from Kotaku: Good for Swordfish, bad for gaming.

That's the only serious complaint I've had with the game: the external driving camera is always much too low.

Congratulations, SiN!

Just heard about X-Plane being ported to the iPhone and couldn't quite believe it until I'd read about it. Just... wow. <snark>In case it hadn't become apparent, I'm now not getting an iPhone due to a swift about face by the person who originally wanted to give me their old one, fuck you very much.</snark>

I know it's hardly the most sensible place to go looking for news, but Internet dish-rag The Inquirer is reporting that "Google is going to be buying Valve any second now." Seems utterly bizarre, but then Google are in the habit of spending a fair chunk on money to make a hell of a lot more. Especially if it's to pick up something successful early on.

I'd completely forgotten about that! That throws a whole Saudi Arabia-worth of petrol on the rumour bonfire, surely? And Google most certainly are in the content game now, with the explicit intention of driving "free" material via ad support. In this case, bespoke Seth McFarlane cartoons sponsored by Burger King.

As far as impressive engine 'mashups' go, I'm very interested to see how the turns out.

Rumours abound on the Consolevania forums that messrs Florence and McCloud have parted ways, putting Consolevania and videoGaiden to bed for good in the process. Anyone know anything more? Seems credible, but I'm crushed by the idea of it.

I believe Consolevania is mirror hosted as a rule, so I don't believe so. I think I still saw the season 2 and 3 episodes still linked on consolevania.com last week.

I think all they want is a nice, far slice of the digital distribution pie. They're not going to throw ads in there--certainly not for content you buy, at least. They've already got your money before you play it! They might do something with the interface and website though, which might include adverts. But then Steam's littered with contextual and inoffensive self-promotion anyway; Google will not deviate from this, as it's a proven model [see AdSense].

'Gaiden series 3's still available on the Beeb at the moment, but I'd expect them to take it down soon as it's probably nearing the end of its lifespan. Any other video content by Florence and McCloud will need to obtained through more salubrious websites means... As for their writing, was there really very much there to be taken away? The news and similar always seemed very bitty and not that in-depth.

You're right; updated my post. Sorry.

Probably wasn't appropriate to ask it in that other thread, so I'll repeat it here: what happened to Crystal Dynamics developing the Tomb Raider franchise? Did they really stuff up Legends and Anniversary to such a degree as to have EA Eidos immediately take it off them again? I'm confused.