GwiDan

I'm learning to play Third Strike, so if anyone's up for a game, my gamertag's GwiDan. If you're going to give me a thrashing, I'd appreciate you teaching me some of your mad skills so I can improve as a player.

I've been playing this on Live quite a bit since getting bored senseless by Halo 2. It's good fun - more so when playing against other people rather than with them. The space battles, if they go on for too long, get fairly tedious, although you can definitely get a good dogfight against other human players. The graphics are very pretty, and the battles have a fairly epic feel. The only niggle I have are that the awards you get (bonuses such as improved damage resistance etc.) for killing a lot of people will only last you one life. The minute you die, you lose everything you've worked hard to obtain. Not very clever considering this is the kind of game where you can expect to die fairly often, considering your role as a random grunt caught in the crossfire.

How many people does this support on Live? I can't find the information anywhere in the game or manual. When I host a game, I get limited to four human players, but I've joined other games on OptiMatch with a lot more than that. I'm assuming it's bandwidth specific, to counteract the horrendous lag problems I've heard the first suffered from - but I can't find a number for the maximum supported number of players online. Over system link, I know you can have 32 players.

I want to like this game - I really do. I used to think it was amazing; then I started playing it quite a bit. It's dead inside! The cars have no feedback - you don't feel like you're braking when you pull the left trigger, and you can't estimate how much grip you have left when you're cornering on the edge. The graphics make it very difficult to see the apexes of corners - especially on Silverstone, where you can't see the apex even when your tyres are leaving rubber on it. It has so many amazing features that can really push the racing genre forward - but PGR2 did the actual racing better. And that, surely, is the whole point of a racing game.

Do you think J. Allard in between waxing his scalp and rambling on about High-Def, forgot to tell us about what may be one of the Xbox 360's genuinely useful non-gaming implementations? It's got a hard-disk, they're making a fuss of its multifunctionality - there's a legitimate possibility that the 360 can indeed record television. Just probably not Tivo-esque.

The Wikipedia entry has some more specific details than I could recall:

On occasion, the BBFC has also rated some video games. Normally these are exempt from classification, unless they depict human sexual activity, human genital organs or gross acts of violence, in which case the publishers should submit the game for classification. The first game to be refused classification by the BBFC was Carmageddon in 1997, however a modified version of the game was later awarded an 18 certificate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBFC

IMO that's an incredibly simplistic view.  Here's why:

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Nice decimation of my post there!

There's only one niggling point - Woolworth are getting delivery of Xbox 360 stock, so wouldn't it be fair to say that you should expect to see at least some consoles in other non-specialist retailers, for example Tesco Extra stores. If there really isn't enough stock to go around, why would a relatively unimportant company like Woolworth get priority over a retail giant?

You all realise that games are submitted to the BBFC voluntarily, yes? And for dubious reasons related to boosting sales amongst minors, yes?

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It's not voluntary if the game contains certain factors. I don't remember the details exactly, but if a game's got gore, or graphic sex, it has to be submitted to the BBFC. I'd definitely agree about the dubious marketing reasons. Haven't the new regulations regarding the size of the age certificate actually worsened that? Whereas before you had a small fingernail sized '18', the red circle now takes up about a fifth of the front of the case!

I'll bet you anything that if you go to your local supermarket (long as it isn't a rubbish miniature version) on launch day, as long as you're quick, you'll get a console without any problem. Are Microsoft really stupid enough not to give the biggest retailers like Tesco any stock?

The campaign isn't something I'd like to replay, unlike the first game's. It was a fairly uninspiring game altogether, until I discovered Live. Quite possibly the best, most comprehensive online aspect of any game ever. Massive shame it attracts the worst kind of scum of the gaming community.

Having recently bought this game and taken it on Live for the first time ever last night, I was thoroughly beaten 26-0.

My excuse is I've never played it before.

Actually, this topic makes some pretty interesting reading, even now. Destructible balconies? Getting knocked unconscious while driving a Warthog?

You certainly can't do that any more.

You are Samus Aran, an elite intergalactic bounty-hunter, equipped with the finest in cybernetic outfitting. You have access to vast amounts of data on any subject simply by pointing your visor at something. You can X-Ray objects at will, blow them to a million bits by a twitch of your right arm. You can jump to seemingly impossible heights. You will not drown underwater. You hunt life-sucking face-eating demons of death for a living.

You can't move and aim at the same time.

Those are terrible generalizations. I don't fit into any of those categories, not being into winning at all costs, obscure Korean titles, Digimon or being old.

I love the GBA2 idea - that would genuninely be revolutionary... if Square-Enix hadn't done it first with Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

Maybe there is no controller, and you interact with games by jacking in, Matrix-stylee.

I meant it's really slow and unenjoyable.

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I was stuck on that section for so long it's unreal.

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You just wait until the CIA level.

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The best thing I remember about the CIA level is the sterile room with the really atmospheric bright white entrance. Worst thing? The corridor with a million guards that you have to try and avoid. I was stuck on that section for so long it's unreal.

I'm up to one of the street levels (possibly the one after the second Chinese Embassy?) It can be extraordinarily difficult, but then I remember if I get stuck on a certain section with too many guards, I can always hide in a dark corner and let rip with a submachine gun. I'm currently taking a break from it all; Halo 2 Live has taken over, along with my latest purchase - the superb Max Payne, which I bought for a wallet-friendly £1.99

There go my plans for entering a 50p bid to buy Nintendo.

Bring back AV Out!

See you!

Sony's sheer arrogance is so reminiscent of the post-SNES era Nintendo. "Competition? We don't know the meaning of the word!" It'd be poetic justice to see them fail spectacularly, but that would mean the death of a very nice handheld console.

£280 + RGB cable + wifi adapter + Live subscription (So. Stupid.) + additional pads + supposedly more expensive games = No.

Have they learned nothing?

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I thought it had a built in wifi adapter. If it doesn't, it better work with my wifi bridge!

you can transfer your existing account over.

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Is that definite? I'd exspect you'd be able to transfer the gamertag, but what about remaining months on the subscription?

Is your problem just with the HD Lead then?

No, it's just something I picked up on from your mentioning they've bundled things together (I assume to make it easier to carry everything home and to save a tiny amount of money). If they've made a HD bundle, I'd have thought they'd make a similarly expensive "normal person" bundle with the RGB lead.

Spot the difference on the consoles:

Will the marketing tag for the core system be something along the lines of:

"Show your friends you're a cheapskate with the non-silver DVD drive"?

MS have bundled some things togther that satisfy one group. They didn't have to.

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A tiny group as I see. What's a realistic estimation of people that own HD televisions or are going to get one before X360 launches?