Troublegum

Swapgame have regressed from a decent and efficient company into one run by monkeys. And not even the 'clever' type of monkey at that. Also, the amount of games getting lost on return recently is alarming. I'm not sure if it is because of this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4700190.stm - or whether they are getting lost at Swapgame. Either way, they still haven't replied to my email I sent three days ago about a missing game, nor have they taken action to remove the game from my account so that the renting process can continue even though that is their standard practice. So I'm still paying for a 'two game service' whilst only getting the benefits of one game at a time. Remember kids; the Certificate of Posting is your friend. It may be time to switch.

I don't see why not, it hardly gives away much that isn't already known. It will struggle more displaying games at 1080p than 720p! No shit! The games don't look like the Motor Storm or Killzone trailers! No way! Your wife is going to kill you, Sherlock.

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200602/065_p1.asp So there you go, just as everyone expected, it's a little bit more powerful than Xbox 360. And the Killzone trailer was a load of bollocks. Surprise!

So nearly perfect...

It will have the power of ten thousand men, each with the power of ten thousand men. It will be made available at first to a small number of people in The Federated States of Micronesia. You can clap your hands to turn it on or off. It will launch at £499.99 and come with a free midget, y'know, for throwing. Quite frankly, I hope at least one* of these things is true. *Clap! Clap! Woof!

Easy. Chipped Xbox. Yeah, I know it's not official or legit but I'm taking it to MY desert island along with some crack whores and there's nothing you can do about it, bitches.

Knight Force? http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/k/index2.html Mega Phoenix has the best graphics I've ever seen in a CPC game. Then again, all of Dynamic's games looked absolutely stunning, it's just a shame no-one could get past the first level of each to find out. So..... difficult....

Our problem has always been a lack of real physical presence throughout the spine of the team and this has been addressed to some extent this season with the arrival of Mido and Davids. However, recent perfomances have showed how much we miss Mido's strong hustling style of play up front, what with Defoe/Keane being too lightweight for the task and Rasiak being about as much use as an ice bridge over a volcano. I fully expect a Uefa Cup place this season but not a Champion's League place.

The Island of Dr. Destructo. Immense.

I agree with this. I can play through a game today and enjoy it but eventually tire before I ever get anywhere near the end. Developers seem to think that the more hours a game takes to complete the better. It's this false illusion of 'value for money' which is ruining many games. Stuart Campbell touched on this in his GT4 review (http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/gt4/review-gt4.htm), and although I don't find the game as offensive as Stu, he does raise some good points on its size. I don't know what started this trend, whether it was the success of the epic Final Fantasy VII, the RPG-like elements in the first GT or the branching, seemingly endless structure of GTA 3, but what I do know is that games have more content than ever. Maybe its the technology that's allowed creaters to go wild, as the limitations of memory size and graphical power are reduced with every passing generation. Perhaps focus is being lost because nearly every idea can now be realised regardless if it fits or not. Hot dang, I would kill for a racing game like the first Sega Rally that has three or four absolutely KILLER tracks and no career mode. But who would make it? And who would buy it?

I don't think any Model 2 game had transparency effects - I remember cross hatching on the arcade version of Sega Rally. Of course, it wasn't as pronounced as the Saturn version because of the higher resolution but it was definitely there. Anyway, an arcade perfect version of Sega Rally might just be enough to make me invest in a cheap PS2. Not at all!

I could eat Stagg Chilli forever if it weren't for its near-lethal salt content.

After watching some classic Top Gear moments on Google Video, I decided to play some PGR 2 to quench my petrol thirst. Naturally, I still have loads of medals to gain and I haven't even raced half of the cars in the game. Still, it's a great game, though, just the right balance in the handling to keep it fun. No Gotham 3 for me quite yet. I must now stay away from the trading folder and Ebay in case I stupidly splurge a wad on something like this.

There used to be an excellent, but rather tiny, shop called Just Tapes in Basingstoke. It sold nothing but 8-bit games on, er, tape. As an owner of an Amstrad CPC, this was like a gaming nirvana because, unlike W H Smiths or Boots, they stocked loads of obscure titles and were really cheap. It died a death some time in the late 80s or early 90s to make way for a toy shop. Another fantastic place I used to frequent (this time whilst on holiday) was Bits and Bytes in Bognor Regis. It sold everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. 8-bit computers, 16-bit computers, consoles, handhelds, LCD retro games and millions of joypads and accessories for every gaming system you could think of. The range of software to be found was nothing short of staggering, it was like nothing I'd ever seen or have ever seen since. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when the Playstation became dominant. I last visited in 1997 to be greeted with a store that was a shadow of its former self. Where there used to be rows of software stacked roof to floor, there were now bare shelves full of crappy PC and Amiga games and an odd scattering of equally rubbish console games. It just got left behind as the big chains like HMV, Virgin and Electronics Boutique came to the fore, which in turn crushed the little guys into submission. I wonder if it's still going... Excellent thread by the way.

It's horrid. The whole point of having Mame housed in a cabinet is to try and create an authentic arcade atmosphere. That thing is a nerd's idea of an cab - it's a PC with bits bolted on to it for all to see.

Patsy Kensit in Lethal Weapon 2. In fact, most South African accents in films are totally gash.

Whuh?

Excellent link - http://www.mameworld.net/movies/ I completely forgot about Karate Champ being played by Van Damme in Bloodsport. "Aren't you a little young to be fighting in the Kumite?" "Aren't you a little old for video games?"

There was an episode where Pauline Fowler gives Martin (I think) an Amstrad GX4000 for Xmas or maybe a birthday. The game was Burnin' Rubber, obviously, which came with the machine and was just about the only game ever released for it.

That's worth watching for one moment and that's the look on Peter Moore's face when they call the Xbox 360 Core Unit the 'Retard Pack'. Oh wait, here it is... http://petersrolleyes.ytmnd.com/ Made by those keeeerazy kooks on GAF.

You wouldn't believe how long that took to make. I'm really must learn how to use decent art programs, rather than rely on Paint and quite primitive freebies from Download.com. Anything more complicated ties my head in knots.

Good effort (and I mean that) but I think I'll just find another Christmas avatar. It's obviously not going to work is it?

Oof, there's a dangerously tempting finance option under that. I can't believe how much more expensive it is direct from Dell.

It can be had for mere pennies! http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/Produ....aspx&sku=30906 93, 883 of them.