F4T C4T

Just been in to check it out. So much awesome stuff! I listened to my own breathing in the meditation chamber, visited Patter's Island fortress then got stuck at the bottom of a whirl pool. After swimming a long way up to escape I climbed one of Patter's towers and traversed the great glass skyway. After apreciating the ancient wizards idol I dropped in to Kingzjesterland but ran into a bit of trouble when I got stuck in the underground grotto. I fell into a watery hole I couldn't jump out of. As I didn't have digging powers I called it a night. Wish I had more time to get into this right now. Shame it has to be restarted come Halloween!

I played a fair bit of this over the weekend. I'm most of the way through the main game I believe (I've been ignoring bandages in favour of grade A's so I can go back through dark world after completion) and so far I'm really enjoying the challenge. Boy are there some killer levels in there. Lots of nice mechanics and challenges sprinkled throughout that keep it fresh though. I almost collapsed in despair when the homing rockets appeared. Memories of N+ came flooding back ( I made it to the last 5 levels in that... one day I'll beat it!). They aren't quite as evil in Meat Boy though (so far). My favourite I think though is the eye beams, there are some really clever things they've done with them. I also love the feature on the replays. Along with the quantum thing it also reminded me of the sperm race as they all charge off and fall one by one leaving the quickest, most adept Meat Boy the winner. All in all if you like a beating from your platformers!

I also picked this up in the THQ pack during the sales a while ago now but only just got round to playing it. It's amazing so far! Can't believe I put off playing it for so long. The atmosphere is intense. Most of the cool stuff has been mentioned in this thread already from what I can see but what I do have to add is this: I guess it's the kind of thing Kieron Gillen was going on about in his mechanic spoilers article. Hmm maybe I should spoiler that then... Can't wait to get back to it though. Being a STALKER fan and part time masochist I started on Hardcore with all voiceovers in Russian and English subtitles. If you felt like you were missing out on stuff in the crowd scenes in English try it in Russian! Only the main characters are subtitled. I properly feel like a stranger in a strange land.

I actually read the instructions as press anything to jump so to begin with I'd coincidentally hit the right buttons not realising it was specifically what was in the white areas. After that I was wondering why jump didn't work and it took me a few goes after that to realise what was going on! Great game. Complete head fuck though.

Report is up as well now, with pics! I'm very sorry about your bruised heart Dibs. Those Elephants will pay!

Can't believe I got this gig. My past credentials involved only a couple of dozen Dwarves at my command. Here I am at Lungfurnace finding 40 plus dirt covered beards staring at me in hope of wisdom and knowledge. Poor buggers. Anyway looks this Dibsric chap has been busy this past year. Most of everything for immediate concern is either up and running or on its way. There's something that bugs me every time I pass the entrance hall though and I can't get it out of my mind: dirt. Dirt and wooden doors. I fucking hate dirt and wooden doors. They have to go. My immediate orders are to carve back some of that crap and clad it in some nice solid dwarven stone. Siltstone seems to be in abundance at the moment so that'll do. While I'm at it I have the stone pillars leading down to the trade depot engraved and stick some nice statues around the place to impress the foreigners on their way in. It looks like shit one level down but at least the initial impression is a bit better now. The spring that follows is busy. Amongst the wandering Lungfish I carve out a new training barracks and clad the walls in stone. Dibsric has made himself Military commander it seems but is slacking hard; I give him a decent training schedule which I'll attend myself every now and again, just to keep him in order. I've noticed Cerol Olonam, one of the miners has been in a pretty bad way in the hospital since I arrived too. Chief Med says his right leg and ankle are screwed and he doesn't know if he'll walk again. We'll see if we can do anything for him. The rest of the spring involves tidying up the 1st floor of the fort, creating stone doors and replacing those horrible wooden ones. I appoint a manger to make production of the doors easier and upon slight envy on seeing Dibsric's tomb, I start work on a similar endeavour. I also order poor Zulban Kalbungek who's been left to rot in a room upstairs to be buried in a communal burial ground opposite the grand tombs to be. About this time more bloody Dwarves turn up. 16 migrants! Good job there's rooms already being built. I'm already lost in dwarf management hell though so they can all be wall builders for now. The spring ends in tragedy. Zasit, one of the guys I roped into helping build a wall, proved to me in the most fatal way that he wasn't lying when he said he didn't know how to build a wall. I'd intended to expand across the river into the west hill to create a proper area for military production and training later on. After building the connecting bridge one floor up, I ordered it to be enclosed with walls and roofing. Reports are confused, but after the dust cleared, Zasit was no longer in sight. A rescue mission was attempted to search the river bed below but the current here is fast and we can only assume the worst. Plans to expand are temporarily on hold for now in memory of poor Zasit. Summer comes. Militia training continues, the curtain wall around the outside is ongoing (despite several reports of wild elephants disrupting the builders) and my tomb is coming along nicely. Trade is going as well as I know how and apart from some git appointing himself mayor and making a fuss about his lodgings (and an inexplicable ban on exporting scepters), things are fairly calm. I'm still struggling with the amount of Dwarves here but most seem to be working for now. Autumn comes. My how time flies! I have expanded the fort little. Mostly making sense of what's here already and making a few superficial improvements here and there. I decide to review plans for expansion into the west hill and begin carving space. I plan two fortified towers, north and south to rise out of the hill providing archer and ballista/catapult placements in the future. The rest of the season passes by in a whirl of dwarven therapy, stockpile confusion and Elves. At least the fort is seemingly well fed and boozed up. Those elephants are becoming a nuisance though. There are at least five of them harassing builders on a regular basis. The guys in the Militia are getting itchy with their new skills too so I give them the go ahead to test their mettle with the beasts. Reports say they were on the west hill near the curtain wall so off we go. As soon as they see us they stampede. Onto the curtain wall. Five elephants, five dwarves all running across my amateurishly built wall. I hope the brickwork holds up! It takes only minutes before Dibs, Rodkin and I corner them at the end of the wall, what will they do? They turn around of course and stampede back towards us. Dibs is sent flying off the wall almost instantly. Rodkin has better luck and fires an arrow as they pass injuring one of their hooves but onward they trample towards myself sending me flying off the wall. Picking my bruised body off the floor below, I call a retreat. We hobble back to the barracks and seeing poor Cerol on our way, still in agony, I fear the worst for the other militia (and silently curse the Chief Med's name). Amazingly all are accounted for and report only bruised limbs and battered pride like myself. The elephants must pay one day! I start training some war dogs. Winter. A potash shortage rears its ugly head. Why is that damn Ashery still empty? Who's in charge here?! I need lye and I need potash made! I'm losing the plot. Lost in a sea of mini tasks and losing sight of any long term goals. I order water to be channelled under the hospital in hopes to build a well. That it might help that useless Chief Medical Officer I can only wonder. Cerol almost certainly will never walk again. Shortly after this I'm reminded of a mad dwarf who has just perished of thirst in his room. Almost immediately another is taken by a strange mood and he's craving shells. He's doomed. I draft a few more into the military in hopes of leaving something of worth to the place when my time is up. Why hasn't the well been built yet? Where's that chain I ordered? Oh that's right, that strange moody bastard has taken the forge. I can't build another due to a shortage of anvils, there's no trade caravans in sight and I have no shells to appease the fool. I make do with putting the last touches to my tomb, wishing for an early grave and sit down to watch the madman in the forge. As he cackles and fawns for his shells I watch the winter pass by and dream of that small community I once called home. Entrance, Barracks and Hospital. Overview. Outer wall stretching around the outside. My Tomb! Can't wait.

Right the save files are uploaded. Whoever's next will need a box.net account and I'll have to add you to the sharing (or maybe Dibs and Murdoc can as well as they have access too). Follow Dib's instructions above making sure you have the right version of DF and using my save files and it should be ok. Let me know if there are any problems! Report impending...

Well I didn't get chance on Sunday... or Monday. I'll make sure I get some time to upload the files tonight though!

Slight delay, will get all the files up sometime on Sunday.

I fear my reign will go down as the most unproductive ever. Oh well. All is done now. Just have to upload the save this evening and write the report. I'll post again when the save's up. Who's gonna go next?

It is Autumn. There are now many elephants. They are very fast and like to climb walls.

I'll go next, downloading now! I agree with the many buttoned bike analogy. I hope you haven't just jinxed my rule Orvidos.

Murdoc! Never forget the boooze! Personally I struggle with 'too many bleedin' plump helmets!' syndrome.

Yeah, I've just discovered Minecraft... But! I did pick up DF over the weekend to refresh my memory for this succession thing. You go ahead with it tommorrow though dibs and I'll pick up after your go. The fort I went back to over the weekend ended in disaster. I picked it back up and realised that I'd not long lost all my miners and mining equipment while trying to defeat a flying serpent-like forgotten beast. After slaughtering many on it's way through the fort, I'd managed to barricade the rest of the population on the entrance level. This flying thing was just hanging around in the sleeping quarters 1 floor below and having no militia and no weapons/armour (or method of making them yet), I'd ordered the Dwarves to dig out and collapsed the roof of the room it was in below. I killed the beast. Also my miners. And possibly a small Dwarven child. Anyway; after seeing the aftermath and remembering the destruction I got back to repairing the floor, burying the dead and getting things back on track so my dwarves could move on from the horrifying events. I also trapped the entrance to the dangerous caves below from where the beast had come while I thought about a better defence. No sooner had I set the last trap another forgotten beast appeared. One made of vomit and breathing poisonous vapours. She waded through the traps oblivious and after many civilian deaths (some via maddened Dwarven hands) my emergency militia of wrestlers joined the fray. I've never seen anything quite like it to be honest. This thing could vomit the length of the corridors. Every now and again it would explode covering anything near by in poisonous vapour extract. After watching this for about 40 minutes and with only a handful of Dwarfs left rocking back and forth in various corners of the fort I abandoned all hope. Maybe one day I'll reclaim it (I was quite proud of the natural waterfall which I'd built it around) but for now it belongs to the vomit creature. Love it.

I just discovered Minecraft the other day. It's amazing. So far what you guys are talking about is far above my head though. I've really only acted out my fantasy of being a DF dwarf and digging far into underground caverns. I'm only just discovering the madness that can be unleashed with a crafting table and a furnace. When I've got the hang of it in singleplayer a bit more I'd love to pop into the idle thumbs server to check out what you guys have been up to!

Thompson, that guy scared the crap out of me too the first time. I've just come back to CoP after a long break. I've not managed to get to Pripyat yet, I still need to find a load of cash for the suit. What's the best way of earning cash in the game? I tend to get a little bit from missions then end up spending most of it on repairs and equipment. I'm guessing I need to get my hands on more anomalies and sell them but so far I tend not to last too long in the hazardous areas they appear! Failing that I might see if there's a way to steal one...

Well, I've not long got my hands on Demon's Souls but it's quickly become one of my favourite games of all time. I'll definitely be looking out for this one. I hope it's not out too soon though, I still have a long way to go on DS!

Man, I was going to pop online to see if anyone was about last night but after commandeering the TV for basically the entire weekend and then some, my girlfriend wasn't too keen on the idea. Ended up plugging into my monitor upstairs and spending some more time in forge offline. Hopefully we can get a session going soon.

I got this through from Love Film the other week (waiting for the rental and the fact it only came out in the UK a few months back mean I'm really late to this party). I'm really enjoying it even though I suck and can't beat the giant dude with the huge tongue and a bird on his head. It took me about 3 hours to get the hang of it and finally beat the first level though and at one point I did almost break. However, I don't think I've been happier in recent times than when I beat the Armour Spider. I didn't have a clue the first time and it fried me instantly. I fought my way back thinking "this is impossible, how am I going to beat it?" and in a battle of epic proportions (for a thief with a tiny rapier) I poked it to death somehow. I have since discovered magic. Has anyone been invaded by a Black Phantom player yet? I'm constantly terrified I'll bump into one and apparently so too is my internet connection. It likes to drop out half way through most sessions. Demon's Souls gets scarier and a lot lonelier when all the ghosts disappear.

Loved going through the campaign in 4 player co-op the other night. I'd only done the first couple of missions alone so I got to experience the bulk of it with mates and I think that actually added a lot to the spectacle on offer. We didn't complete it but so far it's a big from me. I'm also really enjoying the multiplayer too. I haven't experienced the kiddies shouting "newb" too much, mostly because I tend to team up with people I know in party chat and just take on whatever the matchmaking throws at us. I also really like the new armour modules. I can't tell you how much fun I've been having with the hologram! Also making things in Forge world is some kind of therapy I never knew I needed. I only had a brief go in the Halo 3 version and got frustrated trying to jam things together. Now, making my own forerunner structures is easy and awesome (even if they play like crap).

Been away from here for a while but I'm still up for this. It's been a while since I loaded up DF as well to be honest but I'm sure I'll be able to get back into it in no time. Where are we at now? Is anyone currently taking a turn?

I watched about a minute of that Giant Bomb vid and the narration sounded really off putting to me. Not that I think it's a bad idea in itself, just the execution. I can't decide if it's the voice acting, the writing or the combination though. Shame because I really like the idea and art style (despite the not so good character design).

I'm up for this when I get my hands on it. Patters, I saw you were already playing it last night, you get sent your copy early? I haven't pre-ordered or anything, things don't tend to sell out around where I am so I'm hoping to pick a copy up at lunch. Quite excited now considering I skipped 99% of the hype and previews (I only watched the multiplayer preview on the xbox dashboard last night). Bring on the jetpacks!

Loved it. I was reading a blog post over on Gamasutra here (contains a few spoilers) about how he disagreed with the design and it couldn't have been further from my experience. I really enjoyed the deviousness and evil intent behind the level design and it had me laughing and cursing in enjoyment for the most part. Maybe I'm just into that kind of thing though. As I said in my comments over there (I'm Gareth) there was only one part that had me frustrated in a bad way. I think if there had been any more it would have crossed a line. It's a fine line but I think they pulled it off very well. I won't call it story but here's my take on the implied narrative: Cool game.

Well I've been away on holiday the past couple of weeks so firstly congrats to Chris. Great news on the new job! Shame about the podcast but it's easier to swallow the 2nd time around. Just promise me you'll guest on some other shows every now and again; you have interesting things to say about games. You all do really but no-one else had made me buy as many games based on their own anecdotes. Thankfully we seem to have similar tastes so I haven't been disappointed by any of them. Secondly I just wanted to say; I heard you Vanaman. I caught the "day one perch" joke with regards to fish in the Bioshock DLC if no one else seemingly did.