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The Deadric (sp?) Shrines are the one area of the game that I've not completed at some point. I've done a few of them (including Nocturnal, Sheogorath and the one where you've got to be rude at a dinner party) but always seem to get sidetracked.

If you're proficient in (I think) Alteration magic you can buy spells (or make them when you get access to the Guild or have the Wizard's Lair DLC) to open locks of varying difficulty and a little tip I have for picking them manually is to use the gamepad's D-Pad and not the analogue stick to move the tumblers. It just seems to improve the feel a little.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Probably, but the Skeleton Key is pretty essential, so you're right to make that a priority.

Nirnroot grow near water, so anytime you're near lakes or rivers, just look around on the shore. Some people also have them potted in their houses. There are 100 individual Nirnroot plants in the game, so to get the most out of that quest, you'll need to find most (if not all) of them.

Just got Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix off PSN. Never played it before but I'm getting the hang of it. Kind of an impulse buy too. I just really wanted a puzzle game to play on the PS3. Too afraid to face on-line opponents right now. I'm still licking the wounds that my Street Fighter II experiment left me with.

I attempted playing Oblivion and i made my character and everything and got to that one fiery place but then gave up and i'm assuming that fiery place was the main quest and i just wasn't ready for it yet i needed to level up by doing side quests but i never got around to doing that...then i had to give it back to my friend so yeah that was my Oblivion experience, i've heard really good things about it though

I was putting off buying Half Life 2: Episode 2 for a long time. I was trying to use it as an incentive for me to get mid-terms done but today I broke down. Cleared my schedule, went to future shop and bought it (they didn't have the Orange Box which ticked me right off), went home, put my headphones on and played non-stop six hours till I finished it.

I am beat...but what a game. Much better that Episode 1 and possibly even better than the original (Half Life 2 I mean). Beautiful set pieces and the story is just getting better and better. Definetly if your an FPS fan Half Life 2 series is the way to go. Simply astounding.

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I finally got the Thieves Guild quest completed, and am now part of the guild. It took some doing, as the game sort of glitched on me, saying the book was somewhere it wasn't. It kept pointing me to a chest in the other thief's house, but she had it the whole time. I stole a house key off her roommate, and then waited until the thief passed out, gained entry to the house with the key, and picked the book off her sleeping body, as well as a fair amount of gold.

I think I will do some more main quest stuff next, and then head to the Daedric Shrines.

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I completed Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of Patriots the other night. And if there was ever a game that should be the definition of 'video game' then that is it. It's outstanding if a bit too short. Yeah, the cut scenes go on for ages but I found them interesting. For those who ain't played it yet, if you're a fan of the original Metal Gear games, you'll do well to play this. Theres lots of references that fans will get excited about.

And for those who have played it...omg, how awesome is chapter 4?!

I don't have that system - I hear the game is great, though...

A few weeks ago I would have urged you to get a PS3, but advertisements are saying that it will be on X-BOX 360 by autumn with extra downloadable content, so you are in luck. Honestly, play it, mate. You've never played anything like it before. Trust me. Unless you have a Wii? In which case I don't know if it'll be out for that one..

Please. This is just, once again, another rumor. And that's just putting aside the fact that it's entirely unplayable as is on the 360.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Can't stand the MGS gamess, there slow and boring. There is and always have been much better than MGS IMO. I've been told, that it won't make anyone previously not liking the others to liking this, it's more of the same. Told by a few people and one person, while doing a games podcast(fair enough, it was me and 3 other people, but a podcast none the less.)

The point of MGS games is to give people who love that genre the most kickass experience ever. Not to win over new gamers. However, the fourth one changes a lot of gameplay issues that would appeal to *some* new gamers, but that's only if they can stand mature script writing and lengthy cutscenes.

I don't think the first MGS game was just for that, I can understand you saying it about the others. It's not as if there were many stealth games out before it. I can see why too,

The first MGS on the PS was just a tour de force, much like the sequels.

OK, the first Metal Gear, mr cocky pants

Some of the things I love about the MGS games are precisely the things it gets criticised for - the convoluted storylines, the camp and overblown characters, the long cut scenes.

I think you've either got to go along with Kojima for the ride or get off at the first stop (and fair play to you if you get off early) because his idea of what a video game can be is looking increasingly different to other developers'. I've said it before but if his medium had been movies instead of games and he came up with the same ideas and set-pieces, I'd probably hate it.

It wouldn't surprise me if a Metal Gear game ends up on the 360 (MGS2 was ported to the original XBox, after all) but I'd be very surprised if it's MGS4. A spin off, maybe...

I'm not a fan of Metal Gear Solid. My first exposure to the series was MGS2: Sons of Liberty, which I did actually finish, despite having no interest in the characters, story, or painfully long cutscenes. The only other installment I tried was Snake Eater, but the premise ended up being FAR more interesting and revolutionary in my head, versus what I found myself playing. I don't even think I made it through the first stage.

I hear great things about the MGS1 and VR Missions (the latter of which I vaguely remember trying out), but I think it's one of those things to which history is kind, and you need to have experienced at the time it was released. [I constantly try to get people to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, because I still consider one of the best games ever released; but for people who didn't experience it when I did, it's just too dated.]

Well said, mate. There is a knowing ridiculousness about the series and that's part of the charm. I like the long cut scenes as well. And it's not like they aren't interactive. From Snake Eater and onwards the game allows you to do some pretty innovative stuff in terms of watching a cut scene.

You didn't give Snake Eater a chance. Play it again.

I try not to pass judgment on a game without playing it extensively first, but the survival gameplay was much more superficial than Kojima promised. I probably could have gotten used to it, but by that point, the whole "sneak around and be stealthy" gameplay had been solidly surpassed by Splinter Cell, the superior game in that genre.

One of the main problems I had with Snake Eater, understandably enough, was logic. Why on Earth, if you're going to be tromping through a dense jungle full of alligators, killer snakes, and guerrilla terrorists, would you NOT take lethal ammunition? Why? Why? Tell me why. Why do I want to put the bad guys to sleep? Is it funny in Japan? At least in Splinter Cell, they explain why they give you nonlethal ammo from time to time (like, because you need to sneak into CIA Headquarters in Langley, and you don't want to kill fellow Americans). That makes sense!