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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

I'm a middling player. always landing at like 17-9 somewhere in the middle of the pack.

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You talking CoD Sedai?

Just had another go at BF3, 14:18. Still a frustrating experience, tried shooting an uncovered enemy outside at a distance, took about 2 rounds of tickling him till a sniper got me before could finish him. Annoying light glitch in the subway gave me a migraine but managed to get few kills in tunnels. Still too glitchy for smooth playing and screen jumps while aiming.

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Yeah I'm getting weird light glitches everywhere. I know it's an old build but there's loads of issues with it. (EDIT: The daftest being the 'stuck on your back' glitch - one guy was just shooting wildly like that and managed to kill me through the ceiling )

I've found one way to avoid frustration (and I have recently shouted 'F*CK!' louder than ever in my life, I believe ) is to change server if you're up against some mentalist team. *EDIT* There will be level balancing in the final release I've read tho, thank frick.

I'd stay off long-range stuff with non-snipers if I were you P (altho sounds like you're done with it ). In the first stage I mainly scuttle around in the lower stances in the bushes to get close to places, just popping up to see what's about and 'spot' anyone who's too far to be finished off.

If you do stick with it, def get the snipe spawn radio - saves a load of time if you find somewhere to stash it half way to the objectives. (On the first stage I just attack straight up the middle and there's a load of different points you can use as a base... so long as you don't get flanked of course. The guys who are mental at this flit around like a fly with foghorn up their arse. A silenced foghorn, naturally )

*EDIT* I average something like 9:16 for what it's worth . Especially on mentalist servers. But still racking up loadsa spot/assist/suppress bonus points, and more from reviving & medicating as I go. Especially with dunderhead teams. I just leave them trying to breach bottlenecks, bobbling all over my medpack, while I sneak around another way .

*EDITEDIT* - alright, had a few 14:14ish rounds now. I'm still pretty pants at the ole shooting, but using 2-shot shotgun kills in the 2nd stage is upping my stats a fair bit. I'm still fairly kamikaze when it comes to taking/saving objectives tho. And I spot constantly, often at the expense of dodging death, which is kinda foolish (especially as it only nets you 10pts if someone takes them out), but feels kinda integral. The 4th stage still baffles the hell out of me in terms of how best to play it tho. I suck at both defence and attack in that one.

/obsessing

This video best displays what I was aiming at.

&feature=feedu


The quick scope is evident in the Beta.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Ahh, ok. I get totally disorientated with any zoom 4x up in close combat, so I'd be pants at that. (And you will feel Sedai's moral wrath for this )

I'm missing the beta now. Pretty fired up for the full release, despite all the misgivings about the trial. (Glad there's an 'HD' install for the consoles)

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@Tatty - I've somehow beaten one of your times in the Forza demo (The BMW one dodging puntos and that). Twas pure chance I assure you (I'm playing 'advanced' difficulty with auto gears, so I'm not totally cheating or anything. Can't 'fly blind' like you tho!). And I can't get close to you with the Zonda or the Ferrari. Those things are mental

Really? I played it for about 10 minutes then deleted it - Friday is where my fun'll start... Personally, I'm hoping the demo is an early build because the thing handles exactly like F3.

But, I can't have you beating me. I'll download it again!

I like how even the demo has leaderboards - it's something that even Spec 2 GT5 hasn't managed.

EDIT - Have you seen the new 'wheel' for the 360? I initially thought it was Kinect-driven but it turns out to be stand-alone. I actually like the look of it.



It's at the start. I've got the official Xbox wheel and it just about does the job - Rubbish compared to the DFGT but, M$ being M$, the DFGT is only PS3 (and even PS2) and PC compatible. Getting one wheel for all three is serious money.

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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

Right, I gave the Forza 4 demo another try and still feel pretty much the same - The handling's ok but it's no Gran Turismo, although a large part of that could be down to the Xbox wheel.

270 degrees of rotation is pretty pants compared to the DFGT's 900 and the force feedback is poor too. The DFGT's could take your thumb off if you loosened your grip on the wheel mid-corner.

I might save up for one of those fancy Fanatec wheels - Used M$ wheels are going for carzy (EDIT - crazy, you idiot - somebody call Freud! ) money on eBay, about £30 more than I paid for one new, and I could get £50+ for the Logitech. Only another £150 to find then.

Yeah that actually added some appeal right there when I saw your name down as 'challenger' for the bonus laps. It's cool to see someone's else's ghost lap and that. Not that I'm going back to look at it now, coz I wouldn't see you after the first bend

Oh, it's only 6 or 7 seconds faster or something. Setting the steering to 'Simulation' actually makes it easier than when on 'Normal', I found. Looking at your ghost all I'll say is that you need to slow down a bit more entering corners - slow in/fast out.

That BMW is a tail-happy SOB though.

I can remember when GT5 came out, I took it's version of the BMW M5 on a hot lap of the Nordschleife (spellcheck wanted me to type 'Herefordshire' first time round ) and compared it with Forza 3's on the same track. GT5's was about 20 seconds faster over a lap - One's either too easy to drive or one's too hard. Or a bit of both...

Coughed up for Rage. Looks amazing, some best graphics seen but it's just a less engaging Fallout 3 so far. No narrative or hook to keep playing for and painfully poor enemy AI so far. Not feeling like a keeper yet

Forza 4 Collector's Edition ('cos I'm sad like that)

I've only had it for a day and done 3% of Career mode but I've got a funny feeling that this is the greatest console racer ever made.

When Gran Turismo 5 was released, the trite soundbite going around was that Forza 3 was the better actual game but that GT5 a superior driving simulator. GT5 is still a gant's chuff more satisfying in pure driving terms than Forza 3's successor but it's nowhere near as slick and enjoyable.

Sony must have been feeling the heat on its flagship title - It's the best selling PS3 game of all, despite only being out a year, with 6.4 million copies shifted. A hefty 1.2 mil more than the #2 game, GT5: Prologue. Number three is CODMOW 2 (is that some sort of lawn-care simulator? Those kerayzee Japanese folk! ) on 4.8mil.

Aaaanyway, Sony evidently tried to steal some of Forza 4's thunder by launching GT5 Spec 2 (over 1GB of free downloadable updates and additions) last week with the first of the game's DLC coming on the 18th of this month. The updates really freshen the game up but it feels like too little too late, for me.

Forza 3 was already a great game but F4 drives better, looks an awful lot better, has more tracks, more variety in gameplay, more cars (500, all beautifully rendered as opposed to GT5's 1000 made up of 250 HD renders and 750 boxy imports from previous games), better online options, better career mode etc etc etc...

The one criticism levelled at the Forza games has been that they're a bit clinical - Gran Turismo has historically been less slick but the overwhelming feeling is that they have been created by a total automotive nut, which Yamauichi-san certainly is.

Forza 4 now has that same feeling, and it comes courtesy of the gangly simile-mangler that is Jeremy Clarkson.



Top Gear have entered into partnership with Turn 10 (the test track is in GT5 but it's poorly implemented and the contract has apparently now lapsed) and the results, while still leaving something to be desired, bring what was finally missing from the Forza party: personality. JC narrates the opening FMV, the excellent TV advert and the much-vaunted 'Autovista' section of the game. The Top Gear test track is also driveable and you can buy at least two of the show's Reasonably Priced Cars (I've seen the Kia and the old Suzuki, not sure about the Chevvy) to see if you can beat the times of Richard Whitely, Michael Gambon or that arch tw@t himself, Jay Kay. Or Mr Bean. Or Tom Cruise. Or The Well-Spoken Man...

I might resurface in time for Skyrim next month. Probably.



I traded a load of games yesterday (over half my PS3 collection) and got Forza 4, the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus re-release and have enough credit to make inroads into Skyrim. Seeing as I barely play the PS3 anymore if the game doesn't have steering wheel support, this is a major result.

Ain't tried Ico/Shadow of the Colossus yet.

Oo, do all English language releases get Clarkson opining? I know Top Gear goes out State-side, but surely the 'American cars are made of chewing gum' speeches will be starting to grate?

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In relentless Battlefield news, I got the full Battlefield 2 working on my PC finally . As with the demo, my crappy net & crappier computer conspire to hang every minute or so, which doesn't exactly help my survival rate, but I'm enjoying the maps I've played so far.

Looking forwards to a snazzier and less laggy console experience tho. I'm assuming that my dearly bought Xbox gold connection actually does serve some purpose, as I never hang when playing online via it. (I can't see it written anywhere in the services breakdown, but it must be shoring up my shoddy connection somehow).

I'm also aiming to hire Portal 2 as soon as another mate gets his xbox gold sorted out, so might be around for some co-op if anyone's up for that

Yep, pretty sure he's universal but, to be honest, doesn't appear to the extent that Atheists (JC haters ) would be bothered too much.

Now that I've got a decent garage built up I did some online racing today. As per normal there are 100s of total w@nkers picking totally inappropriate vehicles and trying to crash into as many as possible before the room collectively kicks them out. It's a lot better in rooms for the less powerful cars (a tiny penis means that the saddos need to pick a massive car to compensate so they almost never appear there) and where I've tended to hang out in Forza online historically. Pure, close racing.

Portal 2 was one of the games I got rid of in my great PS3 clearout. I don't hate it as a game (but didn't love it anywhere near as much as the first Portal) but took advantage of the PS3 version coming with a free code for the Steam version, so I still own Portal 2.

Now I've done it....

Civ4 - Beyond the Sword



Yep - I forgot just exactly how addicting these games are...

Hold on , I need to take another turn...

OK, I'm back. Anyway, it's the father of all "Just one more turn before bed" games...

Here is a picture of my productivity for the week:

Hahahahahaha. Fantastic.

Heh, I picked up Civ5 in the Steam sale for something like £3. It's got a lot of faults and they're still patching the game but it's as addictive as any of the other Civ games I've played - I think the only one I've not tried is Civ4.

One of those games where you look at the clock and go "Sheesh, I should have been in bed two hours ago".

My fav God-sim type thing is Caesar III. Me likes Romans...

EDIT - Oh yeah, I forgot about this. Now that I have a shiny quad-core PC I figured I'd revisit an emulator that I really wanted to try but found it didn't run that well on my last rig - PCSX2.

Whether it's had some new revisions or it's just that the extra cores providing more oomph, I dunno, but it's bloomin' fantastic! Dead easy to set-up and gives fantastically improved graphics at 60fps - I'll take some screenies in a bit and add them later.

Of course, a PS2 emulator isn't strictly legal if you don't already own a PS2 and are able to dump its BIOS to your PC. It's not hard to do, though, and I doubt many people would use the program if they didn't already own a Playstation. The only other slight gripe is that they haven't (unlike the PS1 emulator ePSX) been able allow you to use your PC's disc drive with PS2 DVDs - You need to dump the discs as iso images.

Here we go! The pics are 720p on a 1080p screen but you can just as easily go full-screen with no loss of frame-rate. It's just easier to take screenshots this way. I'm using a wired Xbox 360 controller on the PC and it maps perfectly, with vibration and everything.





Excellent. The second pic is another great bit of PS2-related jiggery pokery - Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Job System with an English translation.

Basically, it merges the NTSC-J and NTSC/PAL content (you need two game discs, one of each) to give a far more satisfying FFXII experience - Basically, now you can allocate jobs/classes to your party rather than the awful character progression from the original game. Dunno why it was never officially ported into English.

I tried 5 a bit but didn't warm up to it - I may have to try it again at some point. Someone told me to try the Fall from Heaven fantasy mod for Civ, which won awards or something... I've not tried it yet.

Lisa and I played through Final Fantasy X again recently. Still one of my favorites, story-wise.

I've not played FFX for ages but when I loaded it up yesterday I got all misty-eyed with how great Final Fantasy used to be. Even though Tidus is an annoying little twerp, the game is still brilliant.

I'd have FFX at #3 on my Final Fantasy list, behind (but not far behind) FFVIII and VII.