Wrestlevania

That's fantastic... it looks transparent the first few moments it's in the water! SCIENCE.

Name Space ...anyway, I've played a couple of hours of Binary Domain and also find the enemies fun to dismember and blow up. They remind me of Terminators not just in their appearance (obviously), but in how satisfying it is to dismember them only for them to still come at you missing an arm or a leg. I particularly like how you can blow their shooting arm off, and they'll pause to pick up their dropped gun with the remaining working arm and get back to shooting. The game has a fair amount of charm thanks to its attention to detail like that. The enemy designs seem to be of a high calibre too, with a large gunship boss evoking Ghost in the Shell's believable near-future vehicle designs. I do find the squad mates to be universally horrible cyphers, though, with Big B[r]o being particularly repulsive. He's like a 300-pound ambulatory side of beef with verbal diarrhoea consisting exclusively of brain-dead jockisms. And none of the others - Stiff Englishman, Uptight Chinese Lady, and Butch Bomb Woman - are any better, all behaving exactly as you'd expect from first glance at them (which I'm uncomfortable writing, but it is what it is). For me, the superficiality of the main characters jars with the effort the writers have otherwise spent on the main story. It isn't a particularly original tale as others have pointed out, being as it's shamelessly steeped in popular cyberpunk references, but (so far) it's worked them together very well and had some great moments in just a few hours. I've not bothered even trying the speech recognition. I read a couple of thorough reviews and both mentioned how poorly this system worked for their respective writers. The game actively scolds you for not plugging in a mic, which is quite funny in itself, but you can use the D-pad to issue commands and conversational responses instead. Sno makes good points about the blundering, self-harming AI and how broken the conversation system is in this respect. I experienced exactly the same all too frequently. (Not that I particularly care much for any of the characters in the first place, but still...) Overall, I'm intending to go back and play some more of it. But I'd say if you're after an over-the-top Japanese sci-fi TPS and you still haven't played Vanquish yet, I'd recommend Platinum's game before trying this without hesitation. It's just that much tighter and more highly polished, and whilst it also has deliberately idiotic characters, Vanquish's didn't grate on me anything like this lot do.

I think the only thing that felt missing was a discovery mechanic for inspecting the scenery on iPad (haven't tried any other format). The game placed hotspots over collectible or interactive items, but you didn't know what they were until you'd pressed on one and Lee went over to either look at it or pick it up. This didn't interfere with gameplay, because the hotspots never appear to put you in harm's way. It was just a little odd having to press on each hotspot and wait for Lee to find out what it actually was up close. What might have been nice would be the first tap reveals the name of the item without moving Lee, and then a second tap would cause him to interact with it. But, as mentioned, this is much of a muchness; it's just something that surprised me initially when I played via touch, having played one or two adventure games in the past using a mouse. Didn't detract at all from my enjoyment.

I bought and finished this over a long weekend just after Christmas, while I was stuck in bed with the 'flu (or a virus or something--whatever it was, it was sweaty and unpleasant and lasted about three days). I've not really played through an adventure game from beginning to end before. This won me over though; echoing others, I loved the story and was also blubbing by the end. The writing between Clem and Lee was lovely, carefully observed and completely absorbing. She was instinctively my priority in pretty much every situation. Incidentally, I played this on iPad. The "slide in a direction to move" invisible joystick controls were a little awkward and sometimes confusing when the camera perspective tracked or shifted a lot, but I had no show-stopping problems playing it this way and would recommend it to anyone else.

"Mosh-moshhhhhhhhhhhh..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXYxZ6ed70E

I've just watched this, and I'm now finding it uncomfortable maintaining a sitting position... Zm7gEDhrPfk If you adored MechWarrior, or manga like Appleseed, back in the day I guarantee you'll be nursing an insta-semi around the 1 minute mark too. ~rewinds, watches again~

Would be nice if it was basically a toggle for the “walking” state, and off by default. Other than the reskin / higher poly count, there’s nothing new here which seems a bit… stolid. I was hoping there would be more to GO than a couple of new maps. Not that iron sights would be a revelation, but the slight zoom and better accuracy you typically get might have spiced CS up a bit.

Haven't played enough yet to have anything worth sharing. Could someone please invite me to the Day Z Thumbs Steam group please?

Been playing with the bots offline this morning, just to have a look around without upsetting other hoomins, and it does feel fresh (at least to me). The old familiar maps still have that excellent flow, and the new guns I’ve tried so far feel good. However, one of the new maps I tried – the lakeside one – seemed overly simplistic and quite dull as a result. The only other unexpected discovery was that there’s still no iron site mechanic. Its omission feels antiquated and a bit cheap, especially as walking basically has the same effect on accuracy and pace. Maybe someone will mod this in? I hope so. Anyway, these are small gripes. I enjoyed myself all the same. If you see me on Steam chat and fancy a game, ping me an invite.

I am arse-tighteningly dreadful at Counter-Strike - despite squandering an eye-watering 14 hours a day on it at one point while at Uni - so I'm in there like swimwear.

Would anyone be interested in some Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon co-op? First one was hilarious. It's very cheap (£7.99) on Play.com currently, if any UK gamers fancied a dabble.

If first names are acceptable for the list, Miffy, then I'd like to offer up Ulrich Schnauss... Otherwise the only other suggestion I've got, that hasn't been mentioned already (I love Underworld too), would be Om Unit. This one's a remix of theirs, but it is Fucking Excellent™ which should be criteria enough.

Haven't watched anything with Steve Martin in it for a long time, but this scene from The Pink Panther remake is a bit good.

Also snapped this up when it was cheap on Steam. Awful lot of fun, and a very refreshing spin on the open world format (at least in terms of driving). The sense of freedom is excellent, and I'm also really enjoying being a policeman chasing down street racers in one event, then a street racer being chased in the next. Lots of fun, and I'm very interested in trying out some Thumbs multiplayer on this if people are up for it?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/14/1837241 How cool is that?

I have just pre-ordered Street Fighter IV on Xbox 360, and my trousers are tightening already! That is all. Well, except to say that, what with only 1.5 weeks to go, you still can't order any of the new Mad Catz SFIV controllers here in the UK. More frustrating still, I'd really like the Gouki/Akuma version of the control pad, but it's not being released in the UK at all. :tdown: In summary: Original painting by *UdonCrew

Sounds like I need to go shopping...

That's something I've noticed too, playing a Witch Doctor in Nightmare. Whilst running around with Cigol (admittedly 5 levels higher) last night, my WD has gone from being an area affect powerhouse in Normal to being some slight, cloying, and easily dispatched irritation in Nightmare. It's left feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing in the game again--not something I expected at all. Weaker, sure. But basically useless? It seems to be too much of a jump to me, at least for this class (and the majority of my equipment is rares, too). Several skill and kit reconfigurations later has made no apparent difference, which only adds to the frustration, and makes me think that actually, yes, there are still optimum builds in Diablo III, regardless of the unlocked skill system. (Separately, I'm taking a Demon Hunter through Normal at the moment as well; it'll be interesting to compare the experience when that character rolls over to Nightmare.)

If it's something interesting for a class I'm thinking of playing, I might put it in my stash. Otherwise I'll give it to someone of that class I'm playing alongside at the time.

Yep, I recognised her from FarScape (loved (most of) that series) straight away. Mad me sadder that she'd been lumbered with such a puerile character if I'm honest - why couldn't she have been Adria (gag) or even Leah (gagception)?

I finished my first run on Normal last night, ably assisted along the way by dibs and PiratePoo. Thanks guys--much funs! Thinking back to what I wrote earlier about "enjoyable pulpy nonsense", it would appear I was at a point with the story just before it goes all out for the bat-shit crazy and careens headlong up its own hell portal. What utter dross - narratively - the last two hours of the game are, . By the end it's all camp and beyond ridiculous, consisting of hubris and empty posturing all round. And you were so right about the "twists" being telegraphed a mile off. This is proper Budget Soap-Opera Plotting for Dummies, Chapter 1 and makes even the Kardashians seem deep and contemplative. Vile. Conversely, I think I enjoyed the settings and gameplay for the last third of the game the most! Once I hit the late 20s my Witchdoctor was pretty damned formidable, working with dibs and PiratePoo to rip through huge groups of still-very-dangerous monsters in a matter of seconds. It felt much higher stakes, too, because if I wasn't careful I could be killed in just one or two hits. What I guess I'm trying to articulate is that it felt skilful, that you deserved to be fighting enemies this tough with powers and equipment this good. And that's the feeling I bought this game for, and Blizzard have done it very well in my opinion. So at least the end-game is well worth getting to, even if the dialogue isn't. Lots of tactical fighting and it's very fast and frenetic. And I definitely recommend playing with at least one other person, not least because helping each other out is really satisfying.

Call me mentally unwell, but I'm quite enjoying Diablo's pulpy nonsense. (Thanks though.)

Ah, thank you. I was expecting to find quest choices inside the in-game quest log, like Diablo II.

So, I have inadvertently created a small problem for myself. Last night, I joined a game with a couple of other Thumbs who were a good 7-8 levels above me and much further through Act II than I was. They were also halfway through a quest I had no clue about. So I fired the game up again earlier and now I'm still in the middle of this quest I joined in with, my old quest has gone, and I can't seem to find anyway of picking what quest I'm doing. Anyone know how to choose the quest you want to follow? This seems an incredibly fucking stupid design decision on Blizzard's part.

Awesome! Thank you.