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I liked it but it was rather short and too narrow


Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time- got the HD collection for PS3, last time I played that game was 6 years ago and I still got it
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I'm in movie heaven



The People's Republic of Clogher
I caved in and bought Football Manager 2013 at the weekend. Actually, I say 'bought' but I traded a few games and ended up with FM2013 and some credit - now down to single figures in Xbox and PS3 games now, I think. Just the big exclusives for each console left, but I don't really play them either. They'll be kept and finally sold with the consoles in a bundle one day - That's the plan.

If anyone's remotely interested in this heroin in game form, it's a lot faster than recent episodes in processing terms, there's a lot more interaction with your squad and the match engine has been further refined.
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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



A system of cells interlinked
More than halfway through Dark Souls at this point. So far just one or two instances of an area that goes a little too far with the difficulty. Overall, very challenging but fair, for the most part. Just one area of platforming that had me losing it a bit while I played. Finally got through it, but not before getting a few more grey hairs on my noggin.

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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



there's a frog in my snake oil


Decent GTA V preview here. Not really that buzzed for it right now, but...

WARNING: "HereBeVeryMinorGameplaySpoilers" spoilers below
the idea of the 3 protagonists, and being able to switch between them in shared missions, sounds kinda fun. Plus the fact that it's got a lot of flying - do love me some silly air stunt shenanigans


(EDIT just realised some might consider above spoilers, if they wanna go in ultra pure).
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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



Just finished Modern Warfare 3. Solid, but certainly the weakest of the series (even if the storyline was far less insane than MW2). The nature of the formula means diminishing returns: the first was fantastic, the second was very good, and the third was just fine. I'd have to think before purchasing another, though Black Ops 2 looks pretty funny with the future tech, so I'll probably nab that, albeit only when the price comes down. But I can see a not-too-distant future where I don't buy all of them, even after they go on sale.



Meanwhile, playing The Last Testament of Sherlock Holmes with the wife. Not bad. A little too much item-hunting right now, but a few of the puzzles have been fairly satisfying (others just kind of pointlessly difficult). The Deduction Board is still what saves it, even though half the time there's guesswork. But just as often it's a really satisfying way to turn deduction into a decent gameplay mechanic, which is a lot of fun. It forces you to be actively involved in the mystery as it unfolds.

It lacks a bit of polish, particularly given that it was probably delayed something like a year, but the graphics are significantly better than the previous entries in most regards, and the voice acting is still quite good overall.

Holmes sure is a huge jerk in this one, though. We're halfway done and already he's frightened children and threatened a pregnant woman.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I played one of the earlier Holmes games but found everything a bit amateurish. Love the idea though - I was weaned on the peerless Jeremy Brett's Holmes on TV (and Basil Rathbone's old movies on Saturday afternoon TV before that) and have read the Doyle stories countless times.

Played a bit more of XCOM and am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. Never thought I'd care so much about a squad of Space(ish) Marines with ludicrously sized weapons and armour but I love watching all of them levelling up and gaining new skills. In an essentially turn-based game they've managed to get a surprising amount of urgency into the battles too.

I've discovered a neat little mod which supposedly works with loads of PC games - SweetFX

Only tried it briefly on Skyrim and it definitely peps up the visual quality with no performance loss. This new SMAA smoothing technology seems like the way forward - It's almost as good as traditional multisampling without the footprint and looks way better than FXAA.



I played one of the earlier Holmes games but found everything a bit amateurish. Love the idea though - I was weaned on the peerless Jeremy Brett's Holmes on TV (and Basil Rathbone's old movies on Saturday afternoon TV before that) and have read the Doyle stories countless times.
Oh, some of them are pretty bad, yeah. But I think they might have switched developers at one point; either that or they just revamped the way they did them. My wife and I didn't even finish Silver Earring. But they vary in quality way, way more than you'd expect, so you might want to give the others a try, depending on which you played. Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is far away the best, and is probably one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Love the crime scene mechanics, the deduction board is about as good a translation of logic-into-gameplay as can be hoped for, and the way it weaves together with both the Holmes mythos and the actual history of the killings is really brilliant.



Meanwhile, after finishing MW3 I found I still had an itch to play a bit more...so I finally dived into Skyrim! I'm a few hours in, and just finished my first dungeon.

It doesn't have the same force as Fallout 3, which I'm starting to think might actually be my favorite game of all-time. Your first time in a world of that size and newness (GTA 4 had the size, but not the freedom or the same sense of discovery) probably can't be competed with. But so far it's very good. And I appreciate that it's a little more dangerous than Fallout. That the world starts off as pretty dangerous and forces you to tread lightly, rather than having so much of it just level perfectly with you.

I gotta say, though, it's almost overwhelming at first. The history, the size, all the side quests. I've never played an Elder Scrolls game before, so it's a bit like a fictional punch in the face. And I'm finding the crafting mechanics just a tiny bit opaque, but it's early yet.

Oh, before I get further into it, any crucial mods you guys would recommend? I'm loathe to install any right off the bat, but I know there are sometimes some that make a massively huge difference to games like this.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Oh, some of them are pretty bad, yeah. But I think they might have switched developers at one point; either that or they just revamped the way they did them. My wife and I didn't even finish Silver Earring. But they vary in quality way, way more than you'd expect, so you might want to give the others a try, depending on which you played. Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is far away the best, and is probably one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Love the crime scene mechanics, the deduction board is about as good a translation of logic-into-gameplay as can be hoped for, and the way it weaves together with both the Holmes mythos and the actual history of the killings is really brilliant.
Totally agree. I've played/started a bunch of the SH games, and the one I consistently played through to the end was the Jack the Ripper one.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Chris - Fallout 3 Wanderer's Edition, that's all I'm sayin'.

It overhauls the crafting system completely...

Link

If you have a look at gopher's Fallout 3 modding tutorials on YouTube they'll save a lot of grief - Link

They're specifically tailored to installing the Wanderer's Edition and a few companion mods. I'd recommend starting with just FWE installed (plus FOSE and the 4GB patch) - You can add more later without problems. I'm loving FWE even more than the first time I played Fallout 3 on release, and that's saying something. It's completely configurable too so you can disable aspects which make it too difficult. And it's *very* difficult off the bat.

If you've (or anyone else has) got any problems give me a shout - I've been modding Bethesda games since Morrowind.

I had a look at my Steam account and Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper is one of the games I've got but I've only played it for 8 minutes (so I basically just installed it one time to see if it worked but something stopped me going any further) so am gonna give it a shot. I suppose the problem with frequent Steam sales is that I buy loads of stuff on a whim because of the price (the Holmes game was Ł2.50 max) but then either don't play them for ages or forget about them completely.

I've also got The Silver Earring and The Awakened (which I played for a while but didn't care for).



A system of cells interlinked
I'm not sure I could go back to Skyrim after playing Dark Souls, but I do still want to give it a shot on the PC, with proper menus etc. The combat in Skyrim just seems silly after the brilliantly done combat in Dark Souls. I also never found myself "crushing" on Skyrim, looking up gear or dungeons online while on lunch at work or something. I definitely do that with Dark Souls, and sometimes, even after a particularly brutal session on the game, I seem to turn my system back on after 15 minutes, because I just KNOW I can beat this or that boss (yeah, right).

I don't know...there is just something about it. Something about the dark, lonely word you are exploring, with very little contact with others, and yet you see the ghostly apparitions of other players briefly flicker near you as they cope with whatever ridiculous challenge you are trying to get past at the time.

The lore is rich, but the player is presented with very little of it through straight-up exposition, slowing uncovering the dark story as you go along with vague clues and odd dialogue from one of the game's few NPCs.

From Software is on to something here, something many gamers were craving after a trend of hand-holding and easing difficulty. I count myself a fan at this point.

Not for the feint of heart, though....



I also never found myself "crushing" on Skyrim, looking up gear or dungeons online while on lunch at work or something.
I dig that. I did this with Fallout 3 all the time. But I'm making a major point to not look things up in Skyrim ahead of time. Want it to unfold (mostly) naturally this time. In Fallout 3 I basically wanted to know the ramifications of everything before I did it, so I was just constantly reading up on stuff.

I definitely do that with Dark Souls, and sometimes, even after a particularly brutal session on the game, I seem to turn my system back on after 15 minutes, because I just KNOW I can beat this or that boss (yeah, right).
Get out of my head. This happened to me with the elevator sequence in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I'd die a few times and go "oh well, later." And then I'd go do something for 10 minutes and fire the game right back up. Kept happening until I'd beaten it.



The People's Republic of Clogher
For Skyrim. Oops.

For me there aren't any game-changing essential mods yet - The rebalancing mods out there are still not to the standard of Francesco's Levelled Creatures and Items or Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (of Fallout Wanderer's Edition or Project Nevada).

I wouldn't try any kind of rebalancing mod without playing the vanilla game first, though, so you're on safe ground.

What I would recommend are things which improve what I see as glaring errors. Don't have time for links but everything is on the Nexus - A good alternative bet is to have a look through the Top Files of All Time lists.

You'll need Nexus Mod Manager, SKSE and BOSS before you start. Again, gopher on YouTube has some excellent videos for starting Skyrim modding,

Looking down my mod manager list, I'll give you what I would never start a game without -

A Quality World Map With Roads

Breezehome Ladder Fix - Believe me, this is a real grief saver.

Categorised Favourites Menu

Convenient Horses

Enhanced Distant Terrain

Follower Trap Safety

Guard Dialogue Overhaul

Move It Dammit

Realistic Ragdolls and Force

Shadow Striping Fix

SkyUI

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Ultimate Follower Overhaul

Unofficial Skyrim, Dawnguard and Hearthfire patches

W.A.T.E.R

Weapons and Armour Fixes

Xenius Character Enhancement

Then there's the free Bethesda HD texture pack which I use now instead of any of the other complete texture replacers, which are ultimately more detailed but just don't seem to 'fit' as well.

You'll probably also want a lighting mod and your choices will purely be based on taste. The top rated ones are Realistic Lighting, Project Reality, Realistic Colours and Real Nights (RCRN) and Ultra Realistic World Lighting (URWL). Of those, my favourite used to be RCRN but I've been getting a bug in the latest release where weather patterns wouldn't change for days on end, but it might be a conflict with another mod. I've since moved on to a little-known lighting mod called No Tint and Desaturation which does exactly what it says on the tin along with darker nights and interiors.

Now I think it's the best of the lot but is a pain to install because it was never packaged properly - If you're confident with extracting elements from different RAR files and repackaging them into one then you'll be fine. There's an explanation in the comments section from a guy who got it working perfectly and I followed his method.



It doesn't have the same force as Fallout 3, which I'm starting to think might actually be my favorite game of all-time. Your first time in a world of that size and newness (GTA 4 had the size, but not the freedom or the same sense of discovery) probably can't be competed with. But so far it's very good. And I appreciate that it's a little more dangerous than Fallout. That the world starts off as pretty dangerous and forces you to tread lightly, rather than having so much of it just level perfectly with you.
I loved Skyrim and can't wait for the next DLC but Fallout 3 has been my all-time favorite for quite some time now. Atmospherically, nothing comes close, it's an incredibly complete world and that blend of music, the characters and that wonderfully diverse, constantly surprising wasteland make it so, so special. I just love it.



Awesome, thanks man. I'll have a look at a few of those. I'll probably stick to things that improve menus or move followers or things like that. Corrective rather than elective plastic surgery, in other words. Many thanks.



I loved Skyrim and can't wait for the next DLC but Fallout 3 has been my all-time favorite for quite some time now. Atmospherically, nothing comes close, it's an incredibly complete world and that blend of music, the characters and that wonderfully diverse, constantly surprising wasteland make it so, so special. I just love it.
Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Hard to isolate for me, because it's the first of "that type" (though there are only a handful, really, of this very specific type of sandbox game) of game in my case. But I think you're right; I like Skyrim a lot, but the fantasy influences are strong and it feels pretty familiar, whereas Fallout 3's "yesterday's tomorrow" style is so audacious and interesting and constantly surprising. Hard to imagine anything topping it.

I almost never pay full price for a major release no matter how much I want it (the most recent Sherlock game is an exception because it only cost like $35, and the wife and I play them together), but I would absolutely make an exception for the next Fallout game. I'd preorder it, unlock it at midnight, all that jazz. It'll probably be a couple years, though.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I'm guessing they're already working on Fallout 4 (now that the Skyrim engine is live) and it'll be released before this generation of consoles goes West.

Talk is that it'll be based in The Commonwealth...

The Skyrim mods which really right the wrongs are the Quality World Map, SkyUI and Categorized favourites Menu (and are so professional that the game could easily ship with them installed). Ultimate Follower Overhaul adds more follower commands and interaction which I felt were sorely missing from the vanilla game while Convenient Horses dovetails nicely with it (they're designed to play well together) and makes owning a horse actually have a point.

You'll probably soon get sick of town guards talking trash to you, the Dragonborn, and that doesn't change when you level. Guard Dialogue Overhaul fixes that and I now hear guards saying things I never knew were in the game - It's the proper guard voices too so no amateurish voice-acting going on here.

The unofficial patches fix loads of stuff like spelling and grammatical errors and bugs in levelled lists etc. The main quest bugs have been patched out by Bethesda, thankfully.



Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Hard to isolate for me, because it's the first of "that type" (though there are only a handful, really, of this very specific type of sandbox game) of game in my case. But I think you're right; I like Skyrim a lot, but the fantasy influences are strong and it feels pretty familiar, whereas Fallout 3's "yesterday's tomorrow" style is so audacious and interesting and constantly surprising. Hard to imagine anything topping it.
Did you play New Vegas? I felt it lost a little something compared to 3, but I've never been able to put my finger on what, exactly. Still a great game though.

Right now I'm a few hours into Assassin's Creed 3. Incredibly long-winded but they've really stepped it up a notch in a bunch of areas.