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xF3fED8EXl4 If this is real footage, and an accurate representation of what we can expect then colour me speechless, impatient and giddy with excitement. Woo!

V9Q2ZEFZmhs&hd=1 - flat voicework - poor lip-synching - shoddy script - unconvincing slow animation - not enough QTE's So yeah I've dialled down my anticipation a notch, but being a big fan of 'choose your own adventure' books I'm still (naively?) looking forward to it. There is some footage of the other characters here at GameTrailers.

By 'not an indicator' do you mean in this sense; LeBpRiWGdWg ...or in this sense: DqSjfhXpnbM

I'm surprised at the positive response it has gotten as prior to this the promotional material had me expecting something, at best, entirely average? Still I am not convinced, as the videos were really, really boring and the (zap, zap, zap) sound effects were bloody annoying too. ...if only I could be bothered to download the demo and see for myself.

I got that feeling too, especially with the bit where the catlossus is perched in the middle of a chasm watching the boy run around. Combined with the eerie animation (which looks too good to be true ) it reminds me of those old TV show special effects like in the Land of the Giants. ...but less naff, obviously. From NeoGAF;

I've been registered for a couple months now but never actually got around to trying it as the download was so slow. Forgot all about it, but guess I'll give it another try as it does look pretty impressive.

It's a bit expensive for what you get I think. I also don't believe bringing up piracy helps, practically everything from the successful to the unsuccessful is pirated to some extent. It doesn't mean anything. Stardock might have tried advertising the game a little better.

I remember reading the same criticisms when the original Hitman was reviewed in PC Gamer. It never bothered me then, it doesn't bother me now. The way the game is setup helps make the choices feel somewhat more organic than they really are, and the more you play the more accustomed to its quirks you become - but either way you are supposed to fail, and fumble on your first playthrough. Silent Assassin is for completionists. If I remember rightly there is a way of garrotting without alerting other guards, and there is ways of turning the attention off you if you do. So, whilst it's an inconvenience, it still gives you a way out.

I think Sony could have done more to fund special addons like the one they did for Metal Gear Solid. Costumes and art packs for level designers are good, but they aren't going to get people to load up the game again if they've already 'moved on'. For me I'll be honest, I'm lazy, I just can't be bothered getting the disc out of the case and putting it in the PlayStation. Sounds crazy but true.

Jesus, I'm going to assume that video is an elaborate joke because that was...

The swinging mechanics of the game look a bit like a mini-flash game Remo posted a link to a while back.

I'm not impressed with artillery, particularly mortar emplacements. Those things can control a battle and to my mind there's nothing you can do to counter it unless you have long range artillery yourself. Attempting to launch a successful attack on an enemy whilst his mortars are raining death from above is not fun. You can't charge them with cavalry as we've already established, and whilst coming better prepared is sound advice it's still not much consolation after such a miserable defeat. I also had a shock defending my fort. I assumed it'd be fun shooting them from a fortified position but no sooner did the fight start they had already scaled the walls, surprised my enclosed general, and the whole plan was to kaput. Does the Road to Independence campaign offer any advice on how to use units, which units, the different ammo types and such? That's the kind of information I want but there's nothing shouting out and the tooltips describe the actions without really telling me how to use them. The manual is no good either. Inspired by Russell Crowe in the film Gladiator no doubt? I'm hearing a lot about crashes actually, but I guess I've been lucky so far.

Overall very happy with the game, not so happy with the way STEAM handled the purchase and faltered with 'ticket expired' crap, but that's a distant memory now. It's still the same Total War game but there's a lot of subtle changes to the way it works both in battles and on the campaign map that it feels fresh to play. I like the little trenches your defenders can build, and creating ambushes that decimate forces and shock your enemy to the core is so much easier thanks to the little guns they carry. Whilst naval combat itself is pretty forgettable it's nice that the naval units themselves serve a greater purpose. The trade route stuff in particular should be interesting - but I'm too early in my game to see whether the AI is aggressive enough. There's a lot of money in it though. On multiplayer I've played a few land battles so far and it handles itself quite well. It's a little sparse in terms of maps, options and statistics but at least it works. Still I'm mostly looking forward to the multiplayer patch they plan on bringing out, as an online campaign style game is the holy grail for Total War. On the negative side there's a lot of little niggles and at some point they need to make handling units more natural and less glitchy. I don't want to have to micromanage in the heat of battle and re-group men because they decided to crap their pants and run away - and when I select two units of cavalry and try to position them together I don't want them split up into completely different continents - I want them positioned besides one another. It's infuriating! I also have to reset my options for displaying the huge banners everytime the battle starts. This consists of going into the options screen, switching them back on, hitting ok and then returning back into options in order to switch them back off. Easy to fix, but not something you expect to see on release. Not to mention I lost the ability to move my 'spy' after clicking a mysterious (and unlabelled) button whilst he was inside a port. He was still there as far as the game was concerned but I couldn't see him, or do anything with him... The game can be a little confusing, especially in the beginning*, and the 'advisor' from the previous games isn't much help. *pfft, it's positively daunting in the beginning. I can't remember how long I spent on that first turn as the British. But whatever, the game is ace

STEAM Not only are they charging more than retail but they now expect people to download around 15GB on release day. I don't want to turn this into a rallying cry against STEAM like most other ETW threads across the internet but when you live in the UK and your bandwidth is not only monitored to the finest degree but also managed with godawful traffic shaping et al... well it just doesn't sit well. Its like being stuck on the motorway during rush hour with just a skateboard, and no legs, or arms... Maybe it was my imagination but I was under the impression when I made that impulse purchase that there would be pre-loading. Nnannnarrgh, [nerd rage]

Off the top of my head I remember playing Deus Ex when it first came out and not liking it one bit, in fact I couldn't understand why practically everyone else was calling it a classic. It wasn't until a year or so later, after being told I was a moron, I borrowed a friends copy and ended up completely immersed in the game loving every minute. Such a difference? I've had similar experiences with games like Europa Universalis & Hearts of Iron. In these cases though its easy to comprehend why; a confusing interface and a steep learning curve - but the desire to play and enjoy it was always there, the only barrier to this was the game itself. With Deus Ex there was none of that, I should have liked it from the get go but I didn't... Does anyone else have similar experiences where you've gone back to a game only to find you renegade on your original impressions?

I thought it was a real miniature at first *it isn't, right?*

Interesting. As everyone helps 'girl' to grow she can reach new planets, which are then unlocked for everyone else to play on. The Moon was the latest to be unlocked, next it will be Mars. I don't understand how you grow longer though, do you have to eat people/things or what? There seems to be a point where I can't grow longer even though I've wrapped myself around every object in sight and gobble up any folks standing around gawping at me. Is that normal, is there a limit to length in any one session?

You can count me amongst the considerable number

So I've just got around to trying some of the legendary cars. I personally opted to buy the Delorean and Kitt separately as I wasn't overly keen on the chunky, non-steery Ghostbusters van and have never ever watched a single episode of the Dukes of Hazzard. Not sure if they are worth the price (either separately or as a pack) to be perfectly honest but they are a lot of fun to drive and hover around in, the Delorean especially, and the quality of the models and sound effects is at least consistent with the rest of the game. It still would have been nice to have had some more features associated with the vehicles though. Something a little more fully fledged. The Kitt car could pursue criminals and take them down for example, have a special ability where it can narrowly avoid accidents by flipping onto two wheels and occasionally talk in a camp voice when you run a red light. The Delorean should be able to go back in time as well, to the days when Burnout was more of an outrun type affair. Well okay that last one is a bit far fetched (although I'd pay for it), I'm just saying something beyond a fancy looking car with new handling characteristics would have been preferable. But it is what it is, and it'll get more use when or if they get around to releasing new areas no doubt. Edit; Time to use the custom soundtrack option and feed it these two tracks; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuZRrXY4EQE

You might want to try one of the Paradox line of titles such as Hearts of Iron or Europa Universalis, they also do a version set in Roman times - and combat is resolved abstractly and is a lot less random than Total War series.

:grin: :erm: I actually wasn't that hot on buying it until I read the Eurogamer review. I was expecting a silly little experimental game, not something as polished and complete as this. Everything about it puts a huge big fucking smile on your face, and I love it when game developers put in the small (and often pointless) details like being able to move the fairy's wand while loading the game.

It was a joke. You're meant to find it funny, not take it seriously.

So could Microsoft the bastards.

Fans of Soldiers: Heroes of World War II rejoice. The sequel to the sequel, Men of War is upon us and it's flipping good stuff. If you've never played Soldiers, it's basically Company of Heroes and Commando's on a much grander, deeper scale combined with the ability to directly control your units/tanks at will. Fun times, especially online in co-op. It still has a somewhat rough around the edges veneer which might put off newcomers unfamiliar with the original, not to mention utterly ridiculous voice acting - but if you look past that then the multi-faceted gameplay more than makes up for it. I don't know about you but I can't wait. I never really got into FoW due to all the bugs but I've been hankering for something to fill the void ever since and it looks like they've finally delivered... There's a demo of it available here, and this is what RPS had to say on it;

I remember playing SFII in the arcades, but I'd rather hook up my SNES controller to be honest.