Wrestlevania

I've been putting in some very, very late nights over the holiday, in order to get some more of season 1 of The Wire under my belt, and I must say I'm completely hooked at this point (up to and including episode 8). The direction and the writing are masterful and I'm about to burst with the steadily building tension across all sides. The ebb and flow of the various narratives is great, with the small victories here and there perfectly relieving the more tense sections only to allow further build up in the story in general. Hats off so far, really. Absolutely superb stuff -- and not once have those responsible deemed it necessary to talk down to their audience or hit me over the head with a jarring and cheap "story so far" recap. It's like every episode is a tidy, considered mini-novel. Quite how they can keep this level of quality up for a further 3 seasons beggars belief, but I'm very hopeful. -~-~-~- On other televisual fronts, I'm literally about to watch the very first episode of Dexter with Mrs V as soon as I've finished typing this. Oh and I've got all my outstanding episodes of Battlestar season 3 cued up now too, along with the recently released 'unrated' cut of Razor. Right, off we go then...

May every Thumb's 2008 be a happy and successful one.

It's fairly shallow from a story point of view, but it's an amazing trip for your senses. ...except, um, smell. And touch. And taste.

Ouch -- where was that from?

Good, you'll fit right in.

Jay knows his shit if you ask me, so further congratulations are in order.

The idea of that is so appalling, I actually thought it was a wind-up - or at least an over-generous cut for the trails - at first. Utter, utter shit; if you thought New Doctor Who was already too repetitive and predictable, prepare to be amazed.

We were completely addicted to the 360 demo in the office for weeks when it came out. So much so in fact that the game finally stopped us from playing for any longer and insisted we buy the full thing! Never did though as I left shortly afterwards.

Piper was actually very good by the end of it and her character's final episode was quite touching I thought.

You sure you're not getting confused with Spider-Man 3? I couldn't recommend a grown-up action film more highly than Batman Begins.

I was quite indifferent to be honest. Seems this was at odds with other members of my family, as well as you lot, but I really didn't find anything about it particularly special or exciting -- it seems every other episode he's battling rubber-faced automatons in the modern series. OK, this might be a staple of Dr Who in principle, but it's being overused to death by the current writers. I've yet to see anything as frightening or unusual as, say, the sea-vampires which Sylvester McCoy had to battle with. I still don't enjoy David Tenant playing The Doctor either, even though he is a very good actor and clearly understands the role beyond the superficial.

Hold on tight, it's worth it.

I remember reading about Prey when it was first announced in early '96. That first screenshot of the portal technology was really exciting -- and the Native American lead character, with his bow and arrow and pet raven, was really intriguing as well.

Let us prognosticate and bicker about the ways it may (not!) suck horribly in here. If you need inspiration, try over here first -- just make sure you post back in this thread. Aaand... go!

If anything, I'd say the inverse actually. The Duke character model looked pretty final and in-game to me, whereas the brief flashes of "game" were awful -- almost like target footage. Everything but the central character in each shot was horribly blurred, apparently so as to mask it from scrutiny.

I wouldn't think so; they were pretty sharp, in terms of audio quality, as I recall.

I don't recall Zero Punctuation being positioned as a buying guide either, though. Just comic relief in the face of all the multi-page review cluster fucks by people like IGN. Plus I think it's rather unfair to dismiss his opinion (which is the comedy) as not holding any merit; it's what Zero Punctuation's all about. So your reply is lame!

No, the voice was deeper and more gravelly. It's like he's quit smoking sometime between now and then, contrary to the teaser.

August should definitely be on there -- maybe even plopped into the page like a semi-official strip?

I believe Quantic Dream are in fact French. But it's an interesting point you make all the same, about masking their short-comings by using "imperfect" source material in the first place. Might just be that she's just a good voice actress though. Edit: It's a little disappointing to see her face remain almost expressionless, even though she's delivering those lines with some panache.

There's not a chance in hell I'm clicking that. Not in the office at least...

In Cliffy B's office, oiling up Marcus Fenix.

Appearing in a telephone box near you imminently.

They're firm favourites at Castle Mania.

Played the demo earlier in the week and dialogue struck me as pretty consistently rubbish. Especially when they have supposedly olde-worlde characters calling each other "babe" for fuck's sake.