Cigol

Just remember you're going to have to play that, then EP1 and then EP2... I really pity your social life

I'm up to the point with the car and apart from some tedious traipsing back and forth under(gorgeous)ground I've found the experience as good as expected. Fantastic set pieces and a continuation of the non-stop roller-coaster ride that is Half-Life. It's hard for me to explain, but it just works Certainly the best $27 I ever spent... Team Fortress 2, Portal and Episode Two. Valve ftw! The car is still a bit of a bitch to drive though in my opinion

So who else thought Well, I did for one, but your emotions are wasted if you didn't at least make an attempt and enjoy the various voice-overs

Idle Thumbs group statistics.... Portal beating EP2 so far Did anyone who completed the game get the username and password for this tie-in website? http://www.aperturescience.com/ according to RPS you type LOGIN and use the information from within the game to discover some shit - but I never came across any username and password?

I think it's cute, as he is an iconic Video game character (and a bitter rival at that), but I have to agree with Nappi here; the hedgehog has precious little personality or weight. What I don't understand is why? How is it that Mario for example seems to be such a fuller character?

The climatic moments themselves are particularly enjoyable but that ending was something else () it actually brought a big smile to my face which doesn't happen often concerning games. In terms of negatives; I was actually getting a little annoyed with the later challenges. Not because they were difficult but because it was a bit of an eye strain with all the movement going on in the environments (and equally the movement expected of you!) Level design was also a bit 'Half-Life' at times, with the main tiling in particular appearing quite amateurish (or slap dash) which is a little disappointing when the level of detail in some of the token textures (and/or decals?) were so amazing. I just feel they could have gone down a different avenue, like they did with TF2 for example. Still it was a blast, and I didn't look back once I got going. I completed the main single player game in about 3 hours so it wasn't as long as I'd initially hoped - but at the same time it probably would have outstayed its welcome any longer. I've also not tried any of the bonus material such as the extra levels or difficulty settings - not to mention the commentary which I'm sure will be interesting. Definitely gets a thumbs up from me. I never expected the world (merely a diversion) but it ended on a high note and that's took it up a notch in my estimation :tup:

Ah! I never knew this as a spy - I'll stop being so damn suspicious when they have shotguns trained on my head now!

I assumed the reason for shooting them in the first place to was unmask them

Spies seem to always be Pryos or Mechanics in my experience The problem with shooting them, I find, is that they don't always unmask on the first shot. Is that something anyone else has found to be true? I sometimes have to hit them two, maybe three times before they'll fully unmask.

I'm not particularly good at any class but I enjoy the Engineer and the scout. The spy is getting very difficult to pull off these days, whilst the sniper is something I fall back on when I'm not having much luck with the other classes

More people have it than those who don't

And surprisingly a lot of helpful members through the in-game voice chat. It hadn't occurred to me how 'mature' the experience has been so far until you voiced your concerns. I guess we'll find out soon enough whether you're right to be wary Incidentally for those that haven't seen this yet, there is a heart warming () and cute TF2 machinima featuring the Pryo doing the rounds. Check it out here:

I'm not entirely sure whether there was anything technically fancy going on in the dentists office to be honest. Would need someone to replay it in order to know for sure - as my memory is quite hazy on this - As for games that may have employed similar mechanics,

I came across this in a recent article on RPS:

I took it as intentional he largely ignored the multiplayer component. Makes a change considering the majority of opinion. That's all we need, more singleplayer games having their development time cut in half so they can rush out generic multiplayer experiences for no other reason than to meet quotas

Pfft. I wanted to say that, only with far more bile-ridden negativity

Words naturally take on different meanings depending on who you're speaking to and in what context. It's like Hacker and Cracker and Script Kiddie.... which is the one that gets thrown around in the public domain? Hacker... Which is the one that should be? That's right; cunt. So I would agree with the charge journalists are simply being lazy. Gears of War is not a first person shooter and as a PC gamer that's something which is very clear to me. Under no circumstances would I equate GOW with FPS (although on the flip side I can understand the argument). On the other hand am I the only person who thinks that the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games should be defined as ADVENTURE GAMES () When I've said this in the past people instantly berate me (because the term is so synonymous in the gaming world with Monkey Island types) but I find the idea that they are listed as ROLE PLAYING GAMES just as silly. Maybe we should move to the idea of defining games on their content, and not their technical aspects. GOW is an action game for example. KOTOR is an adventure game

I've invited you into the group, I guess you just have to accept this invitation and wait for one of the users with powers to accept your request likewise.

I think it wasn't as laugh-out-loud as previous entries, but keeping the quality consistent must be incredibly difficult. Spot on as usual if you ask me though. Yeah, this entry in particular. Does anyone remember Brooker's tech support phone ins for PC Zone magazine?

Yeah? An eight year old game that was created largely on the basis of scripting set-pieces. The game isn't faultless obviously, particularly its sequel, but neither game is as jarring in execution as Bioshock. Nor is its combat dictated by silly ON/OFF triggers. I'm sorry, but when I can literally visualise the boundaries of a trigger its what I call bad design and I can do that with Bioshock many times over. Although I admit it had its good moments (like the steam covered room). The point remains nonetheless. You make a somewhat valid point (which is debatable given their combat orientated plasmids and the amount of time and skirmish that has undoubtedly passed) but I wasn't actually bothered by their lack of combat nuance in terms of strategy or tactics. It was more their complete universal stupidity and lack of genuine character. I don't really equate spewing random sentences and running wildly around the place (occasionally into walls or inanimate objects) as a defining characteristic of personality - but that's what we are supposed to swallow. I understand their behaviour (or lack of) can be explained away as a part of this lunacy, but they never really struck me as true lunatics in the cut scenes, as there they were clearly cognitive. It just seems like a quick and dirty way to include gun fodder and get away with it. In the end they become an annoyance rather than something to fear or enjoy duelling with. This perception isn't helped by more distinct enemies featuring similarly basic AI and routines.

You what? I grew up playing Doom/Quake (et al) and Goldeneye was pure gold. It was one of the first FPS games to have objective based gameplay that wasn't as overtly banal as 'find this key' and 'shoot these people'... Of course the underlying mechanics were pretty much identical but the way it was dressed up and structured helped differentiate it. Singelplayer was a riot, whilst it quite possibly the best multiplayer you could have packed in front of one screen. Man... I still have wet dreams about the Facility level. It was just so cathartic going through trying to be as quick, and flawless as possible Goldeneye is a classic.

Using the camera to take research photos was hilarious. It's impossible to use stealth to do it (thanks to the woefully crude and obvious scripting) so you end up just running into combat snapping pictures willy nilly (because there's about 400 different rolls of film conveniently laying around the place). Personally I didn't have much of an issue with combat in the later game. Big Daddies quickly lose their bite (although they were never anything more than sheer brutes with large health bars to begin with) whilst the rest of the clientèle are as dumb as pig shit. Repetitive gun fodder that doesn't require much in the way of strategy beyond shooting them in the head. It's a pity that in this day and age that the original Half-Life continues to stand out from the crowd with (especially for its time) gob smacking, challenging and varied artificial intelligence & enemies. A Big Daddy...

They are raving about its multiplayer component as if it were some saving grace but multiplayer is the easiest thing to get right as a developer. I mean is there anything more pathetic than glorifying playing with other people as some kind of achievement? I could play two-player pong or something equally absurd and derive social interactive amusement. It's that fucking simple. What I want to know is why Halo even has legion of fans to begin with. It's utter shit. In ten years time nobody is even going to know who master chief is, that is unless Microsoft continues to endlessly pump money into the hype machine of course. There's nothing intelligent about Microsoft's strategy but god knows it works.

According to Kieron Gillen; your class is the Medic

I'd definitely be up for that