[Carnage]

Finally get to blow the dust off the Wii after picking up my copy of this today:

http://au.ign.com/videos/2010/11/19/donkey-kong-country-returns-video-review

Looking forward to some retro-platforming fun.

[Dolly]

Anyone got GT5 ?
If so would you care to share your thoughts on it ?

[Will Hunt]

Just downloaded The Orange Box. Best value for money on anything I think I've ever seen!
Half Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 AND Portal for next to f all.

Anybody want to play Team Fortress 2?

[SA Chris]

How was NZland Will?

[JamieG]

Anyone got GT5 ?
If so would you care to share your thoughts on it ?

I have it and really like it. But then I am not really a driving game aficionado, so possibly don't know the pros and cons of various titles.

However here we go. It seems very realistic, the handling of cars changes a lot between models. Not an arcade racer at all. Some powerful cars are seriously twitchy, but very satisfying when you nail a corner at full tilt. I like the career mode, since it forces you to race a variety of models and not just your typical sports cars. Career mode starts off quite easy, but quickly gets quite challenging. It gets very tense, when you are on the last race of a difficult championship and you know one errant corner and you will lose the whole things, which i really like (unless i crash of course). Graphics are superb. Sound is very good. I like the ability to customise cars. We took a really rubbish and tiny daihatsu pick up and maxed all the setting on it (expensive) and raced american muscle pickup trucks. Great fun.

Couple of cons: 1. The menu layout in career mode is weird, but doesn't affect the playability. 2. The cars don't really get damaged, which is a bit of a flaw since you can rage into other cars and walls to take the lead, but once the races get harder this doesn't help anyway. 3. The custom track constructor is really odd. One slight change of settings and the shape of the whole track changes. But then you have enough tracks to race without needing to make new ones.

Overall, i think it is a great game. But i haven't really played many of the competitors. Hope that helps.

[Dolly]

OK cheers for that.
Did you play the first one ? - I thought that was great not only for the great (at the time) graphics,sound, sheer number of cars, but the way that the game was balanced and got you to think that you could win if you had just one more go.
The second and third didn't do that as they'd changed the AI for the CPU cars so you could never really get away and one mistake would prove too costly.
 

[JamieG]

OK cheers for that.
Did you play the first one ? - I thought that was great not only for the great (at the time) graphics,sound, sheer number of cars, but the way that the game was balanced and got you to think that you could win if you had just one more go.
The second and third didn't do that as they'd changed the AI for the CPU cars so you could never really get away and one mistake would prove too costly.
 

I played the first one a few times at friend's houses, but never owned it, so can't really comment on the similarities.

There are still loads of cars to drive, ranging from old school classics, to supercars, racecars and bog-standard family estates.

The career mode is good for the 'one more go and i'll win that race' since you tend to require a certain type of car for the race, say a 70's japanese car. So you go to the 2nd hand garage, buy one that fits the bill (sometimes it can be hard to find one) try it out and realise is needs serious turbo/intake/exhaust adjustments to win. You race it again and now it has the power, but is sliding all over the place, so you go back to the garage and change the tyres and suspension. Now you have a winning machine, but it will probably still be close. The real challenge is to make a car a winner without squandering your hard earned race winnings. And certainly it isn't all over if you overcook the occasional corner. However once they get ahead it can be tough to catch them.

Haha, after all this i think i'll go home and have a few races.

[Will Hunt]

How was NZland Will?

[]

Excellent thanks. Fieldwork was very successful and it was great fun doing it. A beautiful and dramatic country full of contrasts of which I only saw a small portion. I'll be back!

[/ ]

[Bubba]

Dead Space 2 is a lot of fun.

Survival horror 3rd person shooter.

* Though I've linked to the 360 page, it's also available on PC & PS3.

[slackline]

Dead Space 2 is a lot of fun.

Survival horror 3rd person shooter.

* Though I've linked to the 360 page, it's also available on PC & PS3.

Just started playing Dead Space, and its good so far, but I can't stand the over-the-shoulder point of view, much prefer first-person-perspective (and you can't fucking invert the look up/down ).

[Carnage]

Dead Space 2 is a lot of fun.

Yeah its great - much better than the first. Multiplayer isn't up to much but then I didn't really expect it would be as thats not what Dead Space is about.

Been playing the demo of Bulletstorm a bit and really like it for silly FPS blasting fun. Got the Epic Edition pre-ordered to make sure I get my code for guaranteed access to the Gears of War 3 beta!!!

[lagerstarfish]

I popped in to Game yesterday and had a play on a 3ds.

I was surprised at how "instant" the 3D effect is. I was expecting to have to stare at the screen for a while until things started to look 3D, but all you have to do is look.

The 3D goes into the screen rather than coming out of it - it's like looking into a diorama made out of cardboard cut outs. I don't know if I was missing something, but all the objects appear to be flat, but in different planes. I suppose I was expecting the objects themselves to look 3D.

I didn't play enough to see how the games used 3D as anything more than a bit of a presentation novelty, but it was pretty cool seeing full colour 3D without any glasses.

Now, if they can make a screen the size of my living room wall and rig it up to something like a PS3 motion sensor then I'd feel like the 21st Century had arrived and wouldn't feel too cheated by the lack of jet packs and mono rails (I'd still like one of those flying surf boards though)

[Jaspersharpe]

http://www.futurehorizons.net/hoverboard.htm

[SA Chris]

mono rails

They've got them in the US already

[SA Chris]

Dead Space 2 is a lot of fun.

Survival horror 3rd person shooter.

* Though I've linked to the 360 page, it's also available on PC & PS3.

After reading this, I started, and have just finished DS Extraction. Found it great fun, never really enjoyed shooters much,  but none of the others in the series on Wii yet.

[Fiend]

Games games.

Played a few recently:

COD4 : MW - pretty spectacular style but irritatingly cheesy war/weaponry pr0n and annoying gameplay where you always die from grenades. Quite obviously designed to appeal to dickheads, but the way it's put together makes it just about interesting.

Crysis - bloody excellent, the polar opposite of COD4 in having solidly great gameplay that allows you to play properly and explore all the useful options available to you. Looks great and some cool spectacles too.

Bioshock - very good and intriguing. Kinda the opposite of Crysis in style and pace, but shares the same gameplay spirit of giving you lots of cool and useful options. Looks a bit cruder but strong style and atmosphere.

[slackline]

I played Bioshock a month or so ago (well finished playing it a month or so ago), very atmospheric and enjoyable game.  Picked up the sequel at Game for a couple of fuck-alls (currently out of stock though).

Currently playing Dead Space (not keen on the over-the-shoulder POV) and Ratchet & Clank : A Crack in Time (childish fun, but reminds me of Dizzy).

[Fiend]

Yeah I got BS2 for a fuck all and a half. Got other things to try first tho. Also picked up DS a while back but have heard that both it and DS2 don't allow full key rebinding, apparently DS2 might be patched for it so will just get that I reckon...

[Falling Down]

Crysis - bloody excellent, the polar opposite of COD4 in having solidly great gameplay that allows you to play properly and explore all the useful options available to you. Looks great and some cool spectacles too.

If this is Crysis2 then I agree, yes it's great.  The campaign mode is really absorbing and the gameplay is great. Not touched the multiplayer options yet.

[SA Chris]

The "be the weapon" tagline amuses me.

[Carnage]

I've been playing Crysis 2 on the xbox for a while and for me the jury is still out. The AI is some of the worst I've experiened with enemies just standing around, running in circles, and failing to react to things happening right in front of them. Its quite distracting and I'd expect more from a AAA title. Its also very slow to start - I hope it gets better, otherwise I can't see myself playing it after the Gears 3 beta begins on 18 April. Plus I fucking hate guns with ironsights.

[fatdoc]

I'm only two hours into crysis 2.

atmosphere = brilliant.

lighting =  astounding.

only just got to the aliens... thank god I found that shotgun.

AI seems thick one minute, then sees you v easily the next. yet to work out how to be more effective. I'm using the stealth a lot.

Think i'm near an important bit...

It's not Deus EX, but it's good.

the story mix of I am legend / 28 days later / robocop is fucking cool.

[Carnage]

Been playing the Gears of War 3 beta since last nite - It's fucking amazing! Zero lag (dedicated servers), super fast, beautiful graphics and many cool new touches. Probably the best multiplayer I've ever been on. Only runs til 15th May and only way to get in now is to pre-order the full game at a participating games store or get hold of a new copy of Bulletstorm Epic Edition.

[SA Chris]

Bulletstorm always amuses me, I wonder if it's a nod towards Bonestorm in the old Simpsons episode?

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/5888

[Fiend]

Been on a semi-retro tip playing Far Cry 2, aka That African FPS Game that is definitely not a sequel to Far Cry in any shape nor form especially not developers, engine, spirit, characters, protagonist, enemies, weapons, settings, theme or goddamn anything.

Anyway, I like the following things about it:

+ Looks great in almost all ways.
+ Setting (including characters and scenery) is refreshing.
+ Atmosphere is strong and holistic and enhances setting (including music and weather).
+ Gameplay works adequately well.
+ Plentiful gameplay touches (vehicles, collisions, buddy rescues, wound healing, diamond finding, weapon degradation) enhance the gameplay rather than detract.
+ Blowing things up is very cool.

Things I don't like:
- Too many Caucasians.
- Can't take multiple missions at once.
- Takes a while to get places.
- Too much jungle not enough desert.
- Fighting enemies in foliage is annoying.
- Despite being Africa it's not bloody bright enough.
- I keep forgetting to save.

Overall I'm really rather liking it. The pros are all stronger than the cons and it seems well worth the 0.4 fuck alls.