Wrestlevania

I love the Global Underground series - it's easily the most consistently brilliant series in a boiling sea of shitty MoS Annual-esque plops on the music world. Pop Trivia: Adam Freeland provided the Area 5 theme for Rez. "Fear is the mind-killer," oh yes!

Thanks, twmac. I picked up the whole NIN back catalogue last night () and am listening to The Downward Spiral at the moment. I'm thinking NIN's electronica-focussed tracks are definitely more to my tastes than the rest. Next up, Pretty Hate Machine.

Oh-sum!

Haven't spotted a single vermin yet, except I'm not sure if one flew by - at some distance - when I went up to the roof of the apartments where you execute that dealer and his two suppliers for Little Jacob.

I'm finding the more I listen to The Slip, the more I'm liking it. The second half is still definitely the better though. Now I need to get hold of all their stuff pre-Year Zero and see if that's even better. I suspect it is, but the only track I've really listened to from then is Something I Can Never Have... which is a bit wrist-slitty and emo for me nowadays.

I'm compelled to comment in a childish manner, so: Operation Dumbness. I'll try to remember to download the demo tonight.

I approve, though it is somewhat more self-indulgent than usual.

I'd completely forgotten my Xbox.com username - and the fact that you can add friends there, too. Have remembered it now though and added you newer guys.

Last night I played various multiplayer modes with a small group of friends on Live for about 2 hours and I'm warming to it a little more. Free For All remains a waste of time if you ask me, but GTA Race and Cops 'n Crooks just seems to be getting more fun with each play. The Cannonball Run sub-mode of GTA Race is particularly funny - especially when people get hold of molotov cocktails and grenades. On the single-player side of things, I've been asked by a friend to play the game in a very specific way and blog about the experience. As I'm only a few hours in still* I figured I might start from scratch for this little pet project. More details if and when I decide to go for it. * I found the auto-save slot, Miffy, but it was still about 2hrs behind where I'd gotten to. Still can't determine what precisely happened to loose my progress.

Can't say the idea appeals on the face of it, but have yet to sample any of their stuff.

That's why I love this game.

I've listened to The Slip twice now and it's growing on me. The first half seems fairly disposable, non-challenging 'pop' NIN. The second half is much darker and more interesting though -- really like the last 4 or 5 tracks a lot already. Ah, cheers for that, Nappi. And I had the email thing too. It took more than an hour for it to turn up, in which time I'd torrented it anyway. However, I've used my download token at work this morning anyway, so I've got a copy here too. (And I want to help with their marketing stuff by using the token anyway.)

No, not a clue - why aren't these things more obvious? But thanks. So, the 'Key to the City' deadline passed yesterday; anyone know anybody who managed to get 100% within the first week of the game being out? I suspect one Robert Florence will have done so, the amount he's been playing, but I could be wrong...

Oh no question--the whole estrangement and 'itinerary' mix definitely worked. I just think there would've been no harm in pushing things a bit further; there were shades of Tenebaums in there (a film Mrs V and I really liked btw), but Darjeeling was missing the details to make it really stick in your mind afterwards. Oh well. We're going to watch There Will Be Blood tonight, hopefully. I'm also planning to see Iron Man later this week with a friend.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I was planning to watch The Darjeeling Limited. And whilst I watched almost all of it on the train (appropriately enough), I still had 20 minutes left when I reached Paddington. Then I talked a very nice Taiwanese PHD student's ear off on the return journey. So I finished watching it today and, well, it's just so... I just don't get what the film's trying to achieve, beyond vague mysticism through deliberately obscure plot development and (admittedly lovely) artsy camera shots. An odd film; no shortage of potential in cast, setting and overall plot, wasted by a frustrating script, tethered to a story which seems almost directionless for several - occasionally unnecessary - scenes at a time. And it's not like you can say, "well, that's just so you can enjoy the culture and scenery." Because you actually get to see pretty much fuck all of what India is like; none of the temples and their amazing gardens (except for some pokey interior shots), the street life, and only really a smattering of the country side--which comes off as implying the whole place is one big, endless dust bowl anyway (definitely not accurate). So I'm at a loss. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention..?

Been hearing that a lot all week, which is why I'm glad I put up with this at midnight on Monday: Royal pain in the arse, but I'm glad I did it now.

It auto-saves upon successful completion of a mission, but these never show up in the save slots when you manually save (i.e. sleep). So I don't quite know what's going on, or why Rockstar have obscured auto-save data. It's obviously a fragile implementation, however they've done it.

OK, I lost my temper with the game last night; if you try to join Live whilst the game is in progress, it drops you back to the opening scene of the game and you lose up to your last auto-save. So I've now lost about 3hrs of gameplay, as I didn't manually save my last session on Friday night. Absolutely livid, as my game time is so rare a commodity. *deep breath* However, in the interests of balance and remaining positive; I tried multiplayer last night for the first time. It's quite good -- nothing outrageous or world-shifting, but it makes good use of the world and it's fun. The team-based stuff is probably the best of the lot. (I'd rather concentrate on the single player game than waste time in multiplayer 'Free For All' and other similar modes.) Cops 'n Crooks is a good laugh, with the crooks having to drive to their boss to a predefined getaway point, whilst the police must give chase and try to kill the leader before he escapes. As you can imagine, it gets quite frantic. Especially when someone blockades the road with a car or two, then pulls out an RPG. (The explosions are magnificent in this game!) And, because the multiplayer environment and mechanics are exactly the same as single player, you can do crazy things like leap off a suspension bridge into the river below and swim for it. Good fun, but not an essential experience. I'm going back to focussing on the single player game again for now (to try and make up those lost 3 hours).

Such a brilliant game (also horribly addictive). We play this at work some times, as it's a great way to break through a creative block. Always relish the chance to do another one (or sixty) - already loving the first round at Thumbs. Here's mine:

Thanks, Miffy. All good points and well reasoned. Ditto; I've never found very long games appealing myself either. Give me ten 10+ hour games instead any day of the week. (Just don't expect me to complete any of those either... ) Anyway, I played again last night for a decent chunk of time and it's just drawing me in more and more. I put the game on immediately after Mrs V and I finished watching episodes 3+4 of Firefly and took the last Vlad mission ('Uncle Vlad'). She was genuinely impressed by the characterisations, dialogue and acting. I'm starting to get bored of Michelle though. She's sweet, sure, but she's pretty dull. The girl in TW@ seems keen though, but haven't been able to get her details yet - the fact you can't initiate and control incidental dialogue is about the only slight frustration I've had with the game so far. After Mass Effect, it feels like it's missing something. What's surprised me most away from the core game is the number of achievements I seem to have unlocked relatively quickly. Without being aware of how to get more than 2 of them ('Warm Coffee' and darts '180'). The most satisfying one I've gotten so far was for: Just brilliant. I'm loving the weather effects in the game too. The heavy rain storms are particularly good - especially the way the thunder makes your controller vibrate according to how close the storm is.

"Succeed" and "Cry like a girl".

GTA has always shifted between 'the experience' and 'the mechanics'. The point I'm trying to make is the experience is the biggest differentiator this time in my opinion, and it's not slight in its implementation.

Hmm, all this talk is giving me pangs of playing RE4 again - this time to completion. Another one for the Pile of Shame then...

Cheers, Rodi. Brilliant! It's out here in the UK today, but I'm not able to make it tonight. So planning to go next week with a friend or two.