Wrestlevania

CLARIFICATION?

Usual culprit: IE6. It looks like there's a reference it doesn't like in the init code for the slideshow.

Bastard thing! Never suffered from RSI or any similar affliction before, but farkin' 'ell does this bloody hurt. Anyone got any helpful tips for a fellow keyboard jockey?

Oh, charming. Pursued into cyberspace by gobby colleagues! (My own fault I 'spose...) No, it's not completely gone. The tendons in my second and third fingers still feel "thick" and the fingers themselves don't move as freely as they should. But the outright pain and shooting sensations have gone now. I'm just trying to be mindful of agitating it a second time, so I'm off the wanking for a bit not going on any bouncy castles or using industrial gardening utilities for a while. My wrist itself still aches from time to time though, but it's nothing like it was before. But thanks for sort of caring. /me makes mental note to try and kick Verohari's shins under the desk for the rest of the day

Indeed; filthy Peter Molyneux scandal-mongering must commence immediately!

Just a heads up: a couple of web-geek friends have said the Plain Sight gallery isn't working in IE...

Fantastic! Really looking forward to playing this, sounds great fun.

*bump* So I've just been into town on my lunchbreak, to that den of gaming eniquity known as Computer Exchange. Wherein, I traded Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - which turned out to be pretty pants - for Burnout Paradise. (I've had a few friends on Live hassling me to get it and join in, even though I didn't really like the demo all that much.) But the reason I'm resurrecting this thread is that I spotted a pristine copy of Earth Defence Force 2017 for sale also! Luckily, I'd also brought Test Drive Unlimited with me as well, just in case of such emergencies, and so snatched EDF up as well. And the difference in cash for both of these--with the trade ins? A whiffling three of your new English pounds; quite a steal, I'm sure you'll agree. Really looking forward to playing EDF at long last!

Well, Google calculates how relevant an image is to a search term by location and inference. Having a page with the H1 as Peter Molyneux, lots of cross-references to Peter Molyneux's career along with your photo of you and Pete (with "Peter Molyneux" as the description) would be a good start. Thumbs' forums gets a whacking amount of hits for certain search terms, so you could try creating a Peter Molyneux thread and then writing about the man himself in the opening post - along with your photo. The replies would also need to support this, like (dare I say it!) pokemon friend codes. Edit: You could also copiously abuse the tags, now that we've got them, by tagging (or creating) reasonably relevant threads we've already got about Peter Molyneux. I've started this already.

Right, so it's arrived - finally. And after 4hrs solo adventuring I'm a little conflicted. On the one hand the story's well paced, it looks fantastic - with well-realised, likeable characters - and has some eye-bogglingly complex level scenery (so far). The combat is also, generally, to my tastes, with the RPG elements making a noticeable difference that aren't a tacked-on "dress up my dolly" system of meaningless aesthetics. On the other hand, I'm struggling with some of the game mechanics. I would imagine most people interested have now read in reviews that the unskippable, 30-second death animation is somewhat frustrating after the 3rd time of seeing it. But it's more the way in which death can occur that's causing me the most hassle. In short, it's the inventory system. Naturally, in an RPG, when dozens of creatures have spent the last hour pounding on your armour, it tends to get damaged. You can see the state of your armour in the inventory screen, but as a tiny bit of indeterminate (though labelled) number fraction. But there are two serious problems with the current implementation: firstly, each piece of armour's condition is listed on that piece of armour (i.e. helmet, breastplate, grieves, etc.) on each item's individual description, not as an overall figure--not that I could see anyway. Secondly, there's no in-game armour condition display - except that when a piece of armour finally breaks, it very dimly pulses red on your character. And if it was already painted red in the first place, well... Basically, I got into a meaty, exciting skirmish with lots and lots of baddies (and no slow down!) last night but couldn't understand why I was suddenly dying very quickly when I hadn't in similar circumstances before. An on-screen armour damage indicator, like we've seen dozens of times before, would easily solve this and improve the RPG aspect I think. "Dear Mr Dyack..."

Having played it for another couple of hours last night, I've decided upon a pithy gameplay description for those still not sure how Too Human actually plays: Diablo 3000. (...except with fewer varieties of baddies and not the inherent Derek Smart-ness that my Battlecruiser 3000-sounding pith might suggest.) /me waits for Derek Smart to cruise in here, via his notorious vanity searches in Google Crafting is good though, like Diablo, and means you get a huge number of armour and weapon varieties--the vast majority with rune (aka buff) sockets. I've also unlocked some of the super-rare armour and weaponry already too, which is a bonus. On the downside, I've also opened up more of cyberspace in the game. Which is basically one giant hedge maze with some incidental obstructions here and there (fallen tree, missing bridge, or typically a closed heavy door). You gain powers to move these obstructions in linear fashion as the game progresses. You naturally come across new portals into different parts of cyberspace as you play through missions, wherein you'll find more rare pickups as well as new 'puzzles' (the aforementioned obstructions). You'll also occasionally unlock a new power to use in cyberspace, which will then allow you to move a certain type of object which you couldn't before. Which is where the (rather weak) 'puzzle' element comes in. Having been rude about cyberspace, the three NORNS - computer-generated AIs - which inhabit cyberspace and serve as prophets and mystics are quite engaging and bounce the story along well. The mix of story-telling between real world characters and the NORNS is certainly interesting, particularly as the former takes place in a gritty techno-future, whereas the latter is set in a blindingly idyllic ethereal forest. Still enjoying myself, having just completed the second mission. The boss fight at the end was a bit by the numbers and old school. Essentially, it amounted to: "shoot these pieces of scenery to force the boss down to the next level of this structure until he gets to the bottom. Then fight one on one until he's dead." Overall, Too Human is turning out to be a completely linear action-RPG. But there's somewhat of an earnest quality to the whole thing and the story's certainly entertaining in and of itself alone. But then I love the mindlessness of beat/slash 'em ups, so you might think differently.

I was just about ready to go and see Guy Ritchie's (pathetically titled) RocknRolla in the next week or so. Then, luckily, I was directed to Mark Kermode's short video review: Ahem... Think I'll be saving my money then. NB: Apologies for not posting my thoughts after finally seeing The Dark Knight last month. I got so wrapped up in getting ready to go away on holiday that I didn't really get the chance. I'll write something up shortly if people are still interested in seeing me take up more space here...

It only gets better when you're drunk and riding with someone like Brucey or Roman.

Wasn't aware of that, but it makes little difference (in my opinion) in the grander scheme of things. Which might be why Black Isle didn't include it in the second game, as it didn't fit in very well canonically. The Stealth Boy back-story makes for interesting, though.

RPS's point about disparate technology is well made and worth noting: I can't see any need to shoe-horn this in, other than "me too" futurist design; "it's the future--everyone has personal cloaking devices!" It sours the whole reductionist ethic they're apparently (and necessarily) striving for; the part where you emerge from the vault and see the devastation for the first time is spectacular and well executed. The weapons, character design and scenery all communicate the devastation well, but throwing this sort of hocus-pocus technology into the mix is the equivalent of witchcraft in this setting. It breaks the immersion and sense of disbelief that seems carefully maintained elsewhere. Otherwise, it's clear these videos are from a later version of the game than the one I originally linked to last month. And it is an improvement, but I agree that the sense of fun isn't particularly apparent here. It still feels like an (admittedly) ambitious and well produced Oblivion mod, with the VATS system bolted on top to make it more Fallout-like. I think I might just mentally write off the the Fallout connection and see if I can enjoy this more than I did Oblivion. I find the setting a lot more engaging at least.

I've been whoring myself more than usual at work and then taken just over two weeks holiday in France with Mrs V and the Vanians (which was great). There's not been much I've been excited about either, gaming-wise, in the last month or more, so I've been playing very little lately. But now having Gran Tourismo 2 emulated on PSP is proving dangerously addictive. It's not perfect, as you can't use the analogue nub for input, but it still works well using the D-pad and face buttons. I also just bought Geometry Wars Evolved 2 this morning which, going by just over an hour's first impressions, looks seriously addictive. I'm also waiting on the imminent arrival of Too Human, which I pre-ordered last week. But it seems to have gotten delayed in the post somewhere, rather aggravatingly.

I think that's just about perfect a description of how Heavy Rain's characters look.

Wow... it's like all those shitty 90's FMV games never existed... I might be jumping the gun, but Heavy Rain just looks like indulgent, pretentious (and extremely repetitive) guff to me. The environment and atmosphere in that demo reel reminds me a lot of the original Condemned, but that was a 'proper' game and it worked brilliantly. If they'd combined the two then it could've been something special. As it is, however, I'm really not interested in thumbing my way through one huge cut scene after another.

I don't think it's anything as 'exciting' as something that serious; I was only using the strimmer for about 3-4hrs. The chemist suggested I may have caused some minor, specific muscle damage in my arm and then agitated it while it was still healing. I've booked a doctor's appointment for next Monday anyway, as I've got the day off and want to speak to him about it.

I just trotted downstairs to speak to the (disarmingly pretty) pharmacist in Boots; all she said I should do for now is take Ibuprofen, with a view to seeing my doctor if it either doesn't subside or makes a (2nd) unwelcome return. I first noticed it whilst I was on holiday, having spent the afternoon strimming around the edges of about 3 hectares of meadow as a favour for my in-laws. I was using a bloody huge, frighteningly-powerful petrol strimmer to do the nasty, which vibrated like an knackered old car and was a sod to hang on to. It ached for a couple of days after that, then subsided. But it's back again suddenly this morning, after spending a day out with Mrs V and the kids yesterday. I'm thinking it might have been those three times I took T on the bouncy castle...

Glad you're enjoying CoD4, Marek. If you'd like to play online - and I really recommend you do - with one less (or more, depending on your point of view) c*nt, let me know; I just renewed my Live Gold subs for the next year.

Those screenshots are glorious--fantastic realisation. Been meaning to play the original Dawn of War for bloody ages, so I better get a move on I think.

I've just stumbled across animation god David O'Reilly, via coverage of his delightful iHologram application for iPhone. Impressed with this, I decided to check out his short cartoon series, Please Say Something; I think it's absolutely wonderful in terms of style, pace and execution. Really fresh and interesting. I then decided to check out his website proper and my head melted just watching the portfolio ensemble on David's homepage. Some truly mind-boggling talent here if you ask me, just incredible in terms of colours, movement, diversity - you name it. (He also appears to have done a video for Venetian Snares, music fans.)

Wasn't looking like I was going to be able to afford it this month, but I've been paid early and had a cost of living increase. So, in the absence of being able to pre-order the game, I'll be at my local 24hr Asda's at midnight this evening. Who else is getting it? I read the Eurogamer review late last night (insomnia, no idea why) and I particularly like the sound of the multiplayer modes: NB: Slightly edited for readability.

Agreed--pretty epic. Maybe we shouldn't ban these parasites outright..? Regardless, sadly our raging, unchecked wall of fire is preventing me from sampling your snake's multiplayer delights in the office.