Scrobbs

It's a long time ago I registered, but I think you can have as many 'active' gamertags as you like on live - as long as you pay for them. Just let the one expire, and put your CC (or code that you buy in a shop - my preferred method, as well as buying points that way) on the one you wish to keep. If you continue with your US one I think you get lots more advantages than you do with the UK one. Relatively, xbox points are cheaper in the US ($1.25) than in the UK($1.75).

You can buy Live subscription in a shop. You scratch the card and enter the code.

Boo! Still, it might be cheaper around crimbo 2008, and with some games.

If you're going to wait and save up for PS3, there's a slim line version slated for end of year. By then there should be some games as well.

Maybe - I read it as the new syringe gun increases your health when it hits, rather that merely damaging the enemy, albeit with no crit chances.

Just plug differences I reckon. Manufacturers try to make EU versions the same to reduce hardware manufacturing costs. The advantage of the 360's power brick is that the power cable is a seperate item from the brick itself, so should be fairly easy to locate a locally shaped powercable to just plug into it.

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You should make one out of papier maché then, and paint it

Why do you need the plastic wheel? Can't you just hold the controller horizontally?

...and I've just seen the trailer for 'The Cottage'. Looks quite good - silly nonsense, but quite good all the same.

So is this actually worth watching? I must admit I enjoyed the first few of the first season, I think I saw up to where starbuck (?) managed to pilot a cylon fighter somewhere or other; I did like the political tension being built up too. Then I gave up. Shoudl I carry on? Is it as good as Trailer Park Boys for example?

I liked Sweeney Todd. Just watched Son of Rambow last night. That was top fun! Doubly so as I grew up in the 80's I guess, which might be who it's aimed at. Kids fuck about just as much now though as they did - or was it more innocent then?

Ginger, you should really give Company of Heroes a go. It is nothing like C&C really. It's very fast, frantic and incredibly invovling!

...I stumbled across this site. You do get considered opinions from the folks that post on here. It's very refreshing to not have a load of idiots screwing about proclaiming 1337n355. The other gaming site I frequent is good fun too and there is some serious debate, but more often than not you will find yourself faced with friendly banter, photshopped pics, outright silliness - again which is good. I've been on there years, like many people here no doubt have, so there's always some good gaming in groups on ventrilo. Obviously there's banter between the people here that know each other IRL and have hung about here for years too, but I like what I read from the peeps here and everyone seems pretty genuine and at the very least to posess some sort of creativity and brain. Enough brown nosing. OMG j00 R teh GH3Y.

Nappi, do you play CoH online? my main profile is norfolknclue if you want to add...

Watched 'The Orphanage' last night. Guillermo Del Toro again doing what he does best! Pretty damn spooky at some points...

I have to agree with OP. I didn't realise this was a sequel, thought it was just another in the neverending franchise. This and phantom hourglass are the two games that have had the most play on my DS, and I've had the most fun playing.

Very nice Nachimir. Some sounds a bit like Red Snapper, some a bit like Up, Bustle and Out, but different. Cheers. They appear to be playing at the corp in sheffield on the 7th. Will try and make it down.

I had a temperature of 102

Right, who's with me? I'm feeling completely jaded with computer games recently, specifically new releases. For a while now, I've not been feeling the love with new games, as they mostly seem to be producing the same old rubbish repackaged. The only games that I actually want to play at the moment are TF2, Company of Heroes and last night I had a blast on portal and really loved it, all of which are fairly in game terms; CoH is nearly 18 months old, TF2 at least 6. Call of Duty kept my interest longer than I expected, but all the new xbox releases fill me with horror, as do a lot of PC titles. Tabula Rasa waned after a few weeks, Sins of a solar empire lasted about 3 hours, Wow still has no attraction, neither does any of the approaching MMORORRGGMMORGGS. The few games I've bought on the Wii hold my attention for about a day. Why is this? Am I just getting a bit older? A bit past it for games? Or am I pushed to tedium by the lack lustre IP being generated recently? All the genres seem to be getting a little tired, and need a fresh injection of interest - just because a new 360 game is a TPS where you can *gasp* play with a mate in the story game online *gasp* doesn't fill me with a desire to spunk 40 quid on it. Of course, that's my rights - I don't fancy the game, therefore I don't buy it. Vote with my wallet. Or is it something deeper? Something more endemic that is caused by the relentless consolidation ongoing in the games industry? Case in point: Grand Theft Auto IV. Lots of people are waiting for this, whether they be a casual gamer who played the last one to death a long time ago or people like myself who spend a lot of time gaming, slavering at the mouth for the graphics! the gameplay! cop shooting! I can't be arsed. Sure, it looks good, but so does Call of Duty 4. COD4, although not original IP, has good pedigree, but they actually bothered to put something different into the MP game - so much so that most players I see online all use different combinations of perks. Ok, so I've heard folks grumble about the linearity of the SP game - but if you looked past that, here was a game that got your pulse racing with excitement as the sheer pace of the action sucked you through (and frustration, on veteran at the ferris wheel, I came very close to breaking my television with the controller, and had to go outside for some kite flying). Right, so the reason folks loved GTA I, 2 and three was the sheer free-form nature of the game. Well, that's pushing it a little far I think; it boiled down to little more than go here, do that, kill them, get that case of money, report back although if I'm being fair you could put that down to storage and ahrdware limitation. You could, should you wish, hijack a taxi or an ambulance and go round doing delivery or medical missions, or for the craic beat a whore to death and nick her money. Staid, dull, boring and tedious. GTA 4 (or IV as it insists on styling itself) is purporting to boast 15 different types of multiplayer, downloadable content in the form of other missions, a drinking minigame where you stumble about to get home, ability to arrange your meetings with fellow crooks to complete missions... I could go on. The feature list definitely seems rich, but still does not grab me like I feel it should. Younger gamers are going to lap this game up, precisely because of the freedom of criminality, that crucial part of games which allows you to forget the real world and immerse yourself in someone else's construct. I think, therein lies my problem. There are few truly talented storytellers, artists who design the world and the atmosphere, but there are a large number of excellent graphic designers and programmers - so the games look fantastic, rarely do the control system bug the shit out of you now, but the story lines really do not come up to scratch. Is this because games are designed by committee? Graphics and sound while being extraordinarily creative in their own right lend themselves to this method of work. The best worlds take years to develop and should be done by one person, as one can easily tell when someone has thrown their entire life into the game world (or indeed other media) they are creating to really make it believable. There are also worlds that have translated badly into games - the Star Wars MMO was disappointing for instance, and that is one of modern cultures most detailed and enduring alternative realities. A game with a promising story was Bioshock. In all honesty, I had been waiting for that game for months. I sat there and fumed at steam when it wouldn't let me download it for hours, then was tortuously slow when it did. I played it I think for about 4 days and got bored of it, without finishing. I loved the story, the game world, the graphics - but it was missing something, a crucial piece so that it too became drawn-out. Perhaps in this case, I realised I didn't really give a shit about the characters and what happened to them. Are these the rantings of a spent, nearing middle-aged gamer? When I first started played video games, all this was fields? I'm not going to sit here and pretend that games from yesteryear were better that they are now, as that is clearly nonsense. I have some nostalgia for old games, but have learnt through experience that playing them merely destroys the fond place they have in my memory as I can play them for literally minutes before becoming dismayed. Games have indeed moved on and become far far more absorbing. To prove that I don't hate all games, As I mentioned briefly above, I'm still in love with Company of Heroes, an RTS game that can leave you with heart palpitations and sweaty palms it's that intense; Team Fortress 2, an FPS that leaves you gurgling with laughter when your pyro charges round the corner into a room full of enemies massing for attack and the sheer panic that grips everyone! There are a few brighter lights on the horizon; EA (of all people) are bringing out a FREE game. Not so amazing, but what is, is that the claim there will be little or no in game advertisments. It also looks suspiciously like TF2 in graphical style and gameplay, but if it offers similar thrills and does something a bit different, who am I to argue? Spore is another one, although I am readying myself for this game to be a bit of a crushing disappointment. On the face of it, the idea seems superb, and it is written by none other than Will Wright, a superlative designer. A little apprehension is present because of what happened with Black & White. There is a new total war coming out, promising those of us (including me!) who loved the previous incarnations what we've wanted since the first medieval - proper naval warfare! Fingers crossed that I don't lose interest as quickly as I did with Medieval II, the friendly AI in the tactical game being the biggest culprit for that, sitting there clicking frantically as your heavy cavalry wouldn't charge because someone was lagging behind being stuck on a ladder, or tree or something equally silly. Why does that matter? Well you're defending your castle against a vastly superior force, all your bowmen have spent their arrows but you're well up on the casualty sheet and one final enemy unit of fresh heavy infantry are charging up the ladders to assualt your knackered artillery troops, and you NEED that heavy cavalry to thunder into their flanks to rout them before they take the walls. But no. The iron horses get stuck on a twig, you lose the castle and one hour of your life. I digress a little and the total war series remains a draw, but games of this calibre are few and far between and while people continue to buy the same old FPS (UT3), RTS (C&C), TPS (Army of Two) shit, companies will continue to churn it out. I think this might have been said before, and perhaps more elequently, but I hope you at least agree and it will reach some others who may become a little more discerning in what they buy.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=128537 The US wants it banned.

I can't remember I'm afraid. It was about 18 months ago that I played it I think. I remember that spike though!

Although not strictly on topic, there was a lady on R4 last night on the way home from work who was talking about silence. It was taught in schools up until 14th century, so she says. Another thing she said was that silence was felt to be subversive by governments at various points in history, and it was banned. Desmond Tutu said something similar, the point being that if humans engage themselves in periods of silence then they become more autonomous and harder to control. Anyway, she was a firm proponent that and the end of a lesson, children should be given 5 minutes or so to absorb what they have learnt, and could help with self discipline. Slightly more on topic, when writing electronic music, you (one, I etc) quickly recognise(s) that a period of silence can be equally as good as beats before it an after it.

Did you finish Dual Strike? The difficulty level increased nicely level on level...then it spiked. Horribly. I got stuck.

Agreed. It is a great game, but really, really, REALLY needs to take a leaf out of Lucasarts' book in not killing the player. The aforementioned wall of death is remarkably...well...deathlike. And frustrating.