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Have you tried Terraria, or its cousin Starbound, Kasper?

Terraria was unfairly (because it was in development before Minecraft was released) referred to as the 2D Minecraft and I really like it. Starbound has the potential to be even better - Terraria in space!



EDIT - Argh, I'd forgotten just how annoying Jesse Cox is. Duncan Yogscast is a little more palatable.

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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

I've posted about Ultrabrilliant before - It's a YouTube channel which posts gaming videos, like 90% of everyone else on YouTube these days. What makes then different is that they concentrate solely on short films which showcase sometimes astonishingly beautiful graphics.

Their latest one is Dark Souls II.



I urge everyone to check out their channel. All the footage is from unmodded games too, so no 'ah, but my game can't look like that' pouting required.

Characters that've made you laugh the most in a video game? Catalina from GTA: SA: Very funny lines but also a hilarious delivery. Norma from Tales of Legendia: Kudos to whomever wrote that character because she made me laugh out out loud again and again. And most recently, Eiko from FF 9: Another well written, absurd and hilarious character.

Can't think of any off the top of my head, although that might have something to do with me not being a huge fan of most game writing. Writing and character development are still lagging behind movies and (modern) TV, for me. Often in a big way.

Things are changing, but it's slow. Alex Garland wrote Enslaved Colon Odyssey To The West, for example. I'd hate to have an enslaved colon.

I think I've found the one game that my GPU won't be able to eat up - Drive Club.



I mean, they've even rendered dirt and wiper marks on the windscreens...

EDIT - Oops, this is PS4 only. There's another very similar racing game which is coming out soon multi-platform. *The Googles* Project Cars! It's Project Cars!

I wonder if they'll render wiper marks? PS4 wins this gen otherwise.

I know these updates are probably a little grating, but AHHHHHH NEW SPYPARTY CHARACTER MODELS.



Definitely funkier than the last batch.

The Queen Mother?

I don't see the gin bottle and used betting slips.

And if that doesn't get me shot, nothing will.

Her Majesty's royal guards are on their way.

I just read that the dog in her purse is going to react to things. Tremendous.

So if you choose her, will the dog be fake?

You mean, like, a real Spy would never have a dog with them?

Exactly.

Real spies have budgies, apart from double agents. They roll with terrapins.

Ha.

I did read that the dog will look around and react to things. And Hecker seemed to like the idea of having it shy away if you hold the laser over it, which would be hilarious.

Is it possible to be the dog?

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

Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please, has announced his next game, Return of the Obra Dinn. Apparently it's a "3D 1st person mystery." Naturally, I'm super interested.

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40832.0

So then, we have, left to right: Beyoncé, Mike Myers, Queen Elizabeth, Sean Connery, and Lucy Liu?

Nice.

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Same here. Papers Please was my 2013 game of the year, after all.

I picked up the GOG version of PP in their last sale, purely because it included non-web editions of The Republia Times and 6 Degrees of Sabotage.

Incidentally, if anyone's at all interested in the latest Thief game, it's 66% off on Square's own shopfront. Steam key and an incredible discount for such a recent AAA game - it works out at £10 here.

Sadly, that price is a reflection of the confidence they have in the game but for a tenner I'd say it was worth a punt. Warts, and there are a fair few, and all.

https://store.eu.square-enix.com/emea_uk/games/

Seems like the US Site has it at $49.99. Don't know if the Steam key is region locked so (non-BritFo) buyer beware.

Couple of Watch Dogs comparison videos.

PC settings comparison:



Xbone vs PC



A quick read through some comments leads me to believe that on Ultra it's extremely demanding. A guy with a GTX770 and 4670k is getting 25fps. I've got a HD7950 and 4670k which is broadly on a par with his specs so it's looking like I'll have to turn things down a notch or two.

Then I watched the video... Comparing Ultra to Low settings showed very little real difference. A few textures, reflections and shadows are inferior on low but that's about it. It's an Ubisoft game though - Their PC ports have loads of settings but a lot of them are horribly unoptimized. AC4 was a joke until I spent half an hour forcing settings through my GPU's menu rather than the game's, and AC3 runs even worse.

Thanks Dave! Super helpful/useful.

Yeah, not a big difference. Bummer to hear it's so demanding, since I think your setup's a fair bit better than mine. But I can live with that. It looks pretty great, and I feel like that's what most of us would be talking about if not for the completely ridiculously great unveiling way back when.

Pretty sure I'm gonna buy this soon and play it on Tuesday. Even if it is a GTA clone with a new mechanic, that sounds pretty worthwhile to me, especially without GTA V on PC yet anyway. Unless really discouraging reviews come flooding in before Tuesday, I'm in for one.

Yep, I'll be getting it too, unless reviews are awful. From what I've found with AC4 (Ubisoft's previous demanding open world game) is that it runs super well on Low and Med settings but High and Ultra are a big jump due to increased AA and lighting effects. I can get a steady 60 on AC4 by turning down AA a couple of notches (which doesn't make any visual difference at 1080p) and having less strong SSAO and DOF effects.

The worst culprit is their VSYNC - When it detects the framerate dropping below 60 it immediately locks down the whole game to 30, which is weird and really distracting. I ended up turning it off and forcing the GPU's own VSYNC to stop screen tearing. Hopefully Watch Dogs will use a normal VSYNC.

I'd say that even on Low, the PC version will perform fine at 1080p. The PS4 is 900p/30 and Xbone something weird like 790p/30.

Basically, I don't think it's time for a new graphics card just yet. Once the big releases start coming out for current gen consoles only is when we might see a jump in PC requirements across the board.

I've only heard snippits from people who've either got review codes (which there's an embargo on until release) or a pirated 360 version. Reports are mixed but I'd take them with a pinch of salt - There's as much anti-hype as there is hype for all new media these days.

Bought Killer is Dead yesterday. It's mental.