pancho

Yup GT = gozaimas I'll be on tonight and every night thereafter.

FEI: Akuma's unlock is more complicated than just finishing the game with all the other characters. You need to not continue and make it through the whole arcade mode very quickly (not letting your timer drop below 70 seconds on each round should do it). The music for when Akuma fights Ryu during his 'fight your rival' arcade playthrough is <i>actually immense</i>. Seth is cheap but you soon get your head around him. Jump in HP and crouch HK won't get blocked on easy or below. Then it's just a case of keeping your distance and being quick.

Detailed reviews of all three official periperhals from a view of playing SFIV.

Take a look at Box Art, a "scrapbook collection of awesome videogame box art". Inlcudes:

Good stuff everyone - will add some of those in now.

Here's a timeline I put together of Rhythm Action games from PaRappa onwards. Can you think of anything that's missing?

More substantial, high-production, point and click adventure-type thing: Bow Street Runner

Sengoku Blade or Strikers 1945? Oh, maybe, Soukyugurentai?

Here. Any more?

Bladestorm got an eight in both Edge and Eurogamer, btw...

I'd be interested in what you think of the points made in this article. Has videogame collecting and prices dropped off in recent times? Will there be a resurgence of interest thanks to the extreme of scarcity being intensified by the extreme of ubiquity?

Some of you might be interested in this piece about Takeshi Kitano's near impossible videogame, Takeshi no Chōsenjō, if you've not heard about it before. Includes some ace footage.

Yeah, so I'm aware it can read as a bleeding-heart liberal diatribe (as I noted at the end of the piece) but I was trying to be more nuanced and subtle than that - more making the point that whether it's the the 'cultural event of the decade' (as MS put it) very much depends on the point of view from your geography - something the game itself interestingly calls attention to. I also found it interesting to have a real-time representation of who in the world plays videogames (albeit online and on 360). It's not really a call to arms to sell everything and wear ethnic skirts so much as a conversation starter.

Could probably have taken better pictures if my eyes weren't broken*. *(apologies to blind users)

Not mine but had to post:

Richard Schickel on some of these issues in the LA Times this week.

Very good!

It's not that the quality of a game changes depending on the audience. It's that the perception of the quality of a game changes depending on audience.

Brilliant!

When you get pulled into a battle the game will remember your selection for each of your team members. It's then possible to just hold down the A (?) button and you will automatically enter your previous commands very quickly - useful when you have the ATB system activated and also when you want to race through an area when your party is much stronger than the enemies there (hence no need to micromanage).

EG review now up

It's Part 1 of 2. The second part (presumably going up in the morning) deals with some of these wider issues that you mention.

All the GoW EG comments thread proves is that people like to protect their investments. And while most complaining won’t have played the game – in a sense that’s not the point; many 360 owners already have an investment in the game – be it financial (in the form of a pre-order) or emotional (in the form of pre-Christmas hope for entertainment). Previews and PR are pure foreplay and the last thing the aroused want is a cold critical shower just before consummation. That’s entirely natural but, to fail to realise that that’s what’s inspiring your mad and thrashing reaction against a review (rather than arguing from a position actual experience with the game yourself) is also entirely immature. Also: I wouldn't really call the Wild Arms 4 thing squabbling. I pretty much bit through my tongue on that occasion limiting myself to just two responses - essentially because I accept the above to be the reason for people's reaction against reviews that suggest their investments are misplaced.

The gambit system has moved the game into management sim territory for me. The speed and effectiveness of your team is now reliant on careful forward planning and macro management rather than micro-inputs during fights. So you're more like the manager on the sideline during battles - offering occassional interferance while enjoying seeing how your preplanning and training is outworked. It works x10000 better than it did in FFXI and I'm really enjoying it.

Glad you love bahamut. It's one of my favourites. Rudra is a little hard going- I heard a story about the producer for that game deciding to stop making games after that because it was such a tough experience - I may have made that up though- can't quite remember.