Raff

Halo 2 had a great run. They kept patching it and adding maps for years even after the 360 was out. All the map packs gradually became free. That's the baseline for console shooters.

They hacked the Eidos Montreal site where you could apply for jobs. Not sure where the 9000 figure came from (over 9000?) because they're saying only 250.

I played the shit out of Cod4 multiplayer, but it was quite enough Cod for me. Their post-release support was piss poor as well and apparently still is.

They've patched the game and killed the ATI lines dead. Bravo!

Thanks, but that just says to install the hopeless hotfix drivers. I'm never buying an AMD card ever again, there are similar issues in other games which have never been fixed. Can't really afford to dump a hundo on a new card right now though and it's still not worth it performance-wise in my price range.

I have the PC version. The good: -The game itself seems fun, you can see that a lot of thought has gone into all the gameplay systems and rules. -It's a lot more accessible and easier to pick up than it looked in videos. -Not had any problem finding a good random server. Just the usual server browser, sort by ping and player count. The bad: -A large range of ATI graphics cards, including my 4870, are giving a nasty grid effect on most of the geometry. It's perfectly playable but looks very ugly. -ATI released a hotfix specifically for Brink which doesn't fix the grid problem and introduces horrible constant stuttering, seemingly for everyone. I've rolled back to 11.3 drivers and have good enough performance. -I'm playing with randoms and the random PC master race is about as thick as you'd expect on consoles, but with the added mixed blessing of nobody having a headset. -You have to skip a cutscene at the beginning of EVERY SINGLE MATCH. Where do they find people who think that's ok?

Warren Spector's interview with Seamus Blackley, another really cool ex-Xbox bloke, is a nice watch if you've not seen it yet.

I generally love these kinds of non-quakelike multiplayer-focused shooters. I'll probably buy it as long as I'm confident enough that it will run smoothly my PC which is getting a little old in the tooth. What really annoys me is that publishers still don't seem to know how to market these things properly even after numerous disasters. They still base their marketing on shit like fake single-player campaigns, plots and characters but never communicate the real reasons why it should be OK to charge full price for a multiplayer-only game (that all the effort has been concentrated on a deeper, more polished game). They keep releasing games with what appears to be a small number of maps but never make any effort to demonstrate how carefully designed they are (which they should be). It's still all about tricking people into believing there's a regular single-player campaign.

Yeah the platform holder mascot avatar brigade seem to have penetrated Gamasutra comments.

Grenades taboggan down mountains?

I want insanity effects built into the dashboard and eShop.

I got my copy of Guardian Heroes for £1 from a car boot sale. It's a proper Saturn CD but with no label and Gurdan Heros scribbled in green marker, presumably a review disc. The music is immense Z_9hZ-RGAOA qRPGrFKkcZI Yeah. They have confirmed that the nasty filter will be optional though.

Crumbs, they're doing Guardian Heroes as well! I'm never going to get a degree! http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/05/another_treasure_classic_gets.php

My video game feeds are: Gamasutra - the big news and some interesting articles Game Set Watch - loads of cool obscure bits and pieces Giant Bomb - to get a feel for recent releases Shacknews - I barely click through to anything but it's the most tolerable general news blog RPS is great for the most part but I don't really have time to read it on a daily basis, I tend to browse through it on quiet weekends. Kotaku and VG24/7 are utter sludge. Joystiq is alright if you're really in the mood to follow a story down to the unverified rumour bullshit level, during E3 or something.

How convenient that my Xbox is in transit to Frankfurt.

Are you saying the hackers immediately used your card to buy Noby Noby Boy? Make sure it wasn't just something you bought, PSN charges sometimes take weeks to show up on my statements.

Plus they killed the Dreamcast!

I had the shareware demo of Raptor with loads of other Apogee games that came on a CD with my Dad's PC. It was second only to Zone 66!

I'm having to send my 360 off to be replaced so all the good XBLA games are certain to come out in the next two to three weeks. My first 2007 machine started destroying discs, got replaced under warrenty (but not the discs). The replacement's GPU eventually died out of warrenty. After a year I replaced it with a new slim last September, which I've now discovered is leaking current onto one of its chrome edges which gives shocks and visible sparks if it connects with any grounded surface (such as a PC via my finger).

Well presumably he ad libed it all with a barebones script, since it's identical to his bank advert voiceovers. The best way I can think to describe it is that he just feigns indifference and understates everything that's going on - and that's the joke, constantly, until he stops talking. Relentless wall to wall dialog just isn't my thing at all and came as quite a shock in this case, creating the atmosphere of a bad animated kids film at times. Anyway I hate complaining any more about this because I thought it was brilliant in every other respect.

Whenever he speaks I think of banal TV ads such as

Just finished single player in about 6-7 hours (according to steam). Really enjoyed it. Mechanically it's brilliant, the world design is great and some of the humour is up my alley. I adore the utter absurdity of the facility etc. I did really really hate Wheatley throughout though. Why do people find Stephen Merchent funny? Is it the Bristol accent? His shit is the laziest humour imaginable, and he does it relentlessly. Luckily he's at his most annoying at the beginning and is only around for the minority of the game. The ending was nice and silly. I don't think they should make Portal 3, it would be pushing it a bit.

I've not really read reviews for a few years. I became sick of terrible reviews on sites that still manage to command a reasonable reputation. Nowadays I generally have a reliable gut feeling about games based on the odd video. Occasionally I'll write off a good game as uninteresting but they tend to get back round to me when people care enough to still talk about them a few months later.

Exactly! Why didn't they go with it?