CandyBob

While it was a gutting result, I can't see where we can possibly be classed as shit. Before the game started we knew we weren't as good as ManU and Chelsea. Maybe the expectations are too high? I also think the press made a meal of the disparity between the teams. We were awful for their goals, but probably had more chances to score. Before the season started we were the one's who had been written off for a top four finish and tbh, a lot of the Arsenal fans also seemed to be feeling this way. We are better off than we were at the same stage last season and still in the CL. I can understand Liverpool fans gripping, but we are complaining when we have seen an improvement overall since last season. It just seems all a bit bizarre to me. It was pretty sad to see people leaving as early as they were as well. But then, I've sat there when we've been playing champagne football, 3-4 goals up, and people around me have been talking about work and what they are having for dinner, with barely a cheer when we score a goal.

Phew.

I'm sure I'll still enjoy it as I like FPS's as well but I guess there are certain things you expect from an RPG. I actually did enjoy driving around in the Mako. And I think if it is done well, playing around with items in the inventory is also something I enjoy. It also nice to see some detailed character progression. A lot of the choices that I think seperate an RPG from something like GOW seem to be gone or very streamlined. Maybe I'm just being to traditional.

Would you say that the RPG side of the game has been pretty much ripped out and its now a story driven FPS? As an RPG fan it was all of those little quirks that the first game had that made it for me. I read the Ars Technica review and it really knocked the stuffing out of me for this. ). They should just have a different beginning for those who were importing. This whole scenario was almost ridiculous, even for ME's science fiction. That's it for now. I am going back in there.

I don't think anyone realistically thought we would be in this position after the Chelsea game? In the last few weeks the expectation level has gone sky high, probably unfairly, which just goes to show how quickly things change in football. This team isn't up to winning the PL even from the position we are in. As mentioned earlier in the thread, we have been struggling in games for a few weeks now and have managed to scrape wins. This is good as before, winning when we have not been playing well was a problem, but the injuries will catch up with us eventually. I think the squad, if it had an injury record that would be within the average across the PL, is strong enough. We never seem to have an average amount of injuries though. Last night's game was disappointing as after sacrificing the FA Cup at the weekend, you would have expected a balls out performance. Villa did a good job of containing, but some of our players didn't perform or show the desire in such a big game. In much the same way as ManU last night, we should have been playing that game as though it was our last. The best we can hope for is to not lose the next 3 games and see how far off the pace we find ourselves. If we are not too far off then maybe our relatively easy run-in will make it interesting.

As someone who normally purchases Bioware games on day 1, I only picked this up last Thursday on 360. Lots of love in this thread but I uhmed and ahhed over which version to get and then got onto other things. Its completely and utterly . 35hrs in since I bought it and its as profound as Fallout 3, the last game to draw me in like this. What's suprising is that the game is still archaic in so many area's while still being amaze. On the 360 anyway, alot of the graphics reminded me of NWN's. Some of the characters models are fine as is some of the armour, but generally its almost like something from games of PC's past. Of what I have seen of the game so far Orzimmar has been the graphical highlight. The controls and camera often still have an unwieldy feeling but overall I've had no problems with the radial menu and it only takes a couple of short clicks to get where you want to be. The biggest problem is that I'm currently finding the combat far to easy on normal. I think I may have struggled early on when facing a Revenant for the first time but the challenge is trivialised by the magic. Cone of Cold generally = combat over and if not then how about some Sleep/Waking Nightmare or Mind Blast. Still I guess it just means another play-through on the hardest setting. There are lots of other small niggles but the negatives are completely over-shadowed by the depth of the world, the genuinely brilliant NPC's that join your party and a story that leads me along way past my bedtime. I've developed genuine feelings for whats going on in the world and the characters I am controlling which is something I have found quite rare this gen. Some of the decisions I have had to make have seen me putting down the controller to weigh up what was best based on how I've been playing my character. While there still isn't enough shades of grey to these moral dilema's, its still kept me on the edge of my seat. Wonderful!!

I've been dedicated in the past. Mainly to UO, EQ and SF2/SSF2. I pretty much neglected 3-4 years of normal releases, much to my sadness in hindsight as I do like the thrill of playing games from the very start when they are fresh for everyone. Now I feel as though I am always playing catch-up. There are so many games I haven't played that I want to sample due to a lack of time that I find myself limiting a games playtime. Bayonetta for example where I'm currently on my second play. I know I will be far from even proficient at it in comparison to some when this playthrough is over but I'm already fairly itchy to start Darksiders and get that finished before ME2. RPG's are probably the only games now where I will still invest some serious time. Fallout 3 took up about 60hrs for me and although I haven't started DA: Origins yet, that will be the same. Its a shame as I know that in setting these limits I'm not getting the most I could from the game but it seems to be the route I am travelling at the moment.

It's the way you use the word people that has me confused. People like me would happily pay £30 for both. Maybe as someone who paid £10 for C64 games and £40+ for SNES or Megadrive games, the value of a 2D platformer is higher than newer gamers. Even then, my 12 year old has had a great load of fun recently with Castle Crashers and NSMBW. The sad reality is that the general gaming demographic is being pushed away from games like A Boy and His Blob under the weight of advertising and peer pressure for the big 360 games. I can understand that for your average 14-18 year old gamer, but its no excuse for core gamers like us with a Wii.

Why not? What makes a 360 game more worthy of the £30 than a game like a Boy and His Blob?

+1 It's one of my favourite games of all time and the article was a great read. The attitude towards the D&D license from the Japanese team was interesting and the game could have been very different had the D&D guys not stuck to their guns.

Ok cheers.

Same here. I didn't even really notice that it turned all shooty at the end tbh. It was all just awesome. Apart from the last boss. That was shit.

For someone looking at dipping their toe into this game for the first time. Is it better to get RB or RB2? Does it make any difference? Are all of the songs compatible? Cheers.

January Bayonetta (360) - £39.99 Running Total: £39.99

I'm a big fan of older 2D beat-em-ups (Shadow over Mystara, King of Dragons etc) but have never really gotten into the likes of DMC and NG so I'm coming into this pretty fresh. I'm on chapter 12ish I guess and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I've started my first play-through on Easy (which could have been a mistake as I'm now itching to play on Normal) and its served as a nice "getting the hang of it" period. I can't imagine that this difficulty level is giving me any idea of how intense things will be on the harder levels but its allowed me to get the hang of some of the combo's. The combat, overall, is very easy to get into. Spamming buttons produces combo's that will generally make mincemeat of most of the angels on this level but the more I have played the more I am finding my own favourite combo's to use. Its been gradual but I'm moving from a button-masher to a more considered player, trying to find the most efficient way to end the fight. The number of options in combat is pretty over-whelming as first, especially when you start buying new weapons and items. I have pretty much stuck to using Scarborough Fair so far though (and have no idea how ideal this is). The moments inbetween combat seem to have been judged about perfectly as well duration wise. I can see where this game will keep a fan of the genre going for hours and hours. I'll certainly play through it twice and maybe more, hunting for better medals. I always felt I was going to love the graphical style and I wasn't disappointed, especially Bayonetta herself. I can see that she is squarely aimed at the teenage boy market but even an older, married chap like myself is not ashamed to admit that I love her. ) The walk, the attitude, just awesome. So good to hear some Sega easter eggs in there as well. Even as someone fairly new to this genre I think the 10's my have been a bit generous. As an overall package it has it faults. The camera can be unweildy at times, there is some pretty bad tearing on certain chapters (360 over HDMI) and combat can often be obscured by masses of colour. The story and voice acting also leave a lot to be desired (although there have been a few occasions where its been quite funny). I guess the 10's are reserved for the players who can appreciate the deep combat in comparison to other titles but even with these criticisms, its an easy 9 for me.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm still not sure what the heck a mature game is supposed to be reading this thread. Super Mario Galaxy to me is a mature game as its requires me to use a high amount of skill, reflex, logic and prior gaming experience. Ok so its dressed up in an outfit made of plumbers in red dungerees and cute turtles, but the game screams "gamers game". I've been spellbound by the golf on Resort. My Mii looks like a cross between Grant Mitchell and Harry Hill but the game requires enough skill and finesse to give someone like me, a 39 year old gamer of 30+ years, something to think about. All the Wii needs is good games from third parties and when they do come up with something decent, the support to make it successful.

Its always interesting to hear how a new player approaches the game. I'm sure anyone who has played it had a time of adjustment in the beginning to the way we normally play games. Its a very different beast.

I don't think 4-1 is such a great idea unless you have the blessed mace from 5-1 (although it can still be done). I think I did 1-1 and 1-2 first like you and then went onto 2-1. The hot poker guys should be pretty ok if you take your time. Pull one at a time and just wait to dodge an attack before swinging. 3-1 may be ok as well. The mind flayer type guys are scary at first but once you work out the couple of spell patterns they have its easier.

Managed to polish off 2-2 last night. The other route makes it much easier to get to the boss and I was surprised at how easy he went down. The whole boss fight and the corridor leading on into 2-3 had a really epic Mines of Moria feel to it. Loved that. I got the mace from 5-1 and made progress in 4-1 up until the boss gate. 4-1 is probably my fav level so far. Its wonderfully bleak and the skeletons are formidable opponents. Any mistimed attack is punished severly. I ran home like a big jessy with my souls after reaching the boss gate though. Will try that tonight time permitting. The more I'm playing the more I have to adjust how I normally play games. Personally I'm finding I can't approach it anything like I have done any other game this gen and probably any game for some years. In a lot of respects it can be a bit like preparing for an MMO. You can certainly pop in for short periods and visit areas to farm and gain souls but as someone who is going through for the first time, you have to allow for the fact that you may die after an extended period of play in a level and then go on a corpse recovery mission. This all adds to the tension though and is part of what is making the game so unique.

I did try going right first off and had a couple of deaths by falling so ended up going left. Will persevere with the right side tonight. My TV is as black as night so may bump up the brightness a fraction for that bit.

I came away from my first proper playtime with this a bit drained last night, in a good way. Not since EQ has a game left me a bit of a nervous wreck. The combination of the harsh world and the corpse recovery system adds an edginess to the game that no other game for some time has matched. Other than the early MMO's maybe no other game creates this? I started in as a Royal, as it felt fairly balanced and started from SL1. I've spread my souls fairly evenly so far, keeping all of the stats fairly close. My logic is that neglecting a stat will just mean a big investment later on if I need it higher. Was caught off guard initially by the fact that each stat doesn't have its own soul cost progression. I haven't really looked at armour and weapons much yet. I've upgraded a Winged Spear and Scimitar a bit but still in the starter armour. The upgrading is the one thing I'm unsure of. Should I spend the ore and souls to upgrade the bog standard weapons or wait? I've finished 1-1, 1-2 and 2-1 with no real problems and the bosses, unfortunately so far, seem easily exploitable. It must be a pretty difficult task though creating them in this game. You need a balance between the solo player and summoning help. 2-2 was what I class as my first real level. Its an oppresive bugger and there is a real feeling, the further you go, that this is a one way ticket. After some hours exploring, clearing out the level and getting the crap frightened out of me by the lava bee's coming over the top of the cliff I reached the boss gate. Normally in a game you'll dive straight in and suck it and see but in this I didn't want to lose the 15,000 souls I'd amassed (which seemed a rich haul at my level). I took the decision to leave this boss for now and try to find a way out with my haul of souls. Needless to say I died, from a fall I think. Considering the amount of falling involved to get to the bottom, I'm wondering if you can even get out again after you commit. It was a truly intense and edgy experience though and I love the patient gameplay that rewards in spades. Needless to say I'll be passing that boss gate tonight and hopefully find a shorter route down to it.

Never managed to do either.

Have you had a couple of the standard grunts follow up behind the heavily armoured shotgun guys treating him as a shield? That caught me by surprise.

I've just finished the train ride section, which is what, chapter 22, and while some parts have been hit and miss, overall its been a superb adventure so far. The set pieces and environments have been truly breath-taking. Some views, for example from the top of the hotel in Nepal, seem unparralled to me. Admittedly I've not played much in the way of third or first person games on the PC for some time, but certainly it has impressed me more than say, Assassins Creed. These jaw dropping moments come along so regularly I felt really spoilt. The quiet stroll through the Tibetan village is one of my favourite moments in gaming. No combat or platforming, just a walk through a painfully detailed and atmospheric environment. Truly wonderful. The train ride again was a brilliant moment. For some time I just looked out at the environments the train was travelling through. I was sceptical of the next gen moment claims but not anymore. The script and acting are tight, amusing and for a game, have set a benchmark. There is a seamless transition from cut-scene to game and to my eye, the quality of both seems pretty close. The combat and platforming are where we get the hit and miss. These levels really show off the combat. At other times the combat is just dull and a bit too scripted. At one point I couldn't climb a ledge to escape until I had defeated all of the enemies the game wanted me to. If I tried to escape beforehand then two enemies would suddenly appear out of nowhere and shoot me from the ledge. I even checked to make sure that the nearest soilder to me when I started the short climb was 100 yards away and invisible because of the swirling snow. Its also not as tough as DF. My first playthrough is on hard and nothing has been a real problem so far. I'm personally not finding the enemies bullet sponges, except for perhaps the guys with the shotguns, and to be frank it could do with being a bit more challenging. Picking up ammo has caused a small amount of frustration but not to the extent that some are experiencing but really, it should just be automatic for whatever weapon you happen to be carrying at the time. The platforming suffers from the same problem. Exhilerating at times (getting to the Cintamani Shrine), safe and scripted at others. I guess its too much to ask for perfection all of the way through but when the game does do some things so right, its make the negative aspects all the more jarring. I like the conflict between the invinsibility of Nate in game and the vunerability of him in the script. I know he doesn't go down easily and ultimately for the most part, especially the platforming, its difficult to kill him even when you try to on purpose, but the acting and script really portray the hardships he is going through. Its a strange combination, the feeling of invincibility at times in game fighting against the vunerability that comes across in the script, but this is something that is also a feature of the Indiana Jones films and it did these no harm. Overall its a game that should be experienced by all gamers. It doesn't do everything right but it all comes together wonderfully.