Aimless

On the other hand, how many people had any idea who the Ice Climbers, Pit, Roy or Marth were before playing them in Smash Bros.? They're familiar now, sure, but I don't see how they're intrinsically any more 'worthy' than, say, Tombi, Sir Daniel Fortesque or Kat from Gravity Rush. Sony has a huge range of characters to choose from, especially if they want to draft in those of third-parties that have been synonymous with the brand in the past; Lara Croft, Cloud, Snake, Kazuma Kiryu, Reiko Nagase, anyone from the first three Resident Evils, etc. It doesn't matter if not everyone's going to be familiar with them all, so long as there's obvious headliners to get people on board. I think people are saying "charm" when what they mean is "nostalgia". And I'm not even necessarily talking in relation to the games where Nintendo's cast first appeared but the original Smash Bros. itself, which came out over 12 years ago when most of this forum would have been at their most impressionable. You didn't buy that game for Ness and you won't buy this one for Radec, but just because characters don't mean anything to you doesn't mean there aren't people out there that care.

I don't think SuperBot have shied away from the comparison. Obviously they're not going to mention Smash Bros. in a press release, but they seem pretty candid about the game's inspirations in interviews. Reading a couple of previews has gotten me more interested. Whilst ostensibly very similar to Nintendo's game, the core of the fighting isn't about ringing out opponents but building up tiered Supers, which all sound suitably bombastic. Seems brawling might also be more combo-based.

I forgot to mention, the name is horrendously long; that was an aspect of Smash Bros. they really didn't need to emulate. The rumoured Title Fight name was much better. Also, if Cloud Strife isn't playable then someone hates money.

Darn, I was hoping for something more akin to Power Stone. I thought the idea of Sony taking on the concept of Smash Bros. was great as they actually do have a lot of characters to pull from and we aren't exactly inundated with such mash-up titles, but this is a bit too on-the-nose. If you squint you could easily mistake it for Nintendo's game, whereas I was hoping they'd take the core conceit and do something else with it. That isn't to say it looks bad, I just don't really understand why they've made comparisons between the two games so easy to draw when there wasn't really a need to. It's like trying to beat CoD by making a better linear shooting gallery.

My PX5s arrived today. Naturally my experience with them isn't too extensive yet, but I'm finding the sound quality and separation very good, with no background hiss or other interference. They're comfortable, too. I purchased my headset from DigiDeal via Amazon for just under £100. They're factory refurbished but the only clues were the rather no-frills packaging and that the base station and headset weren't paired out of the box, so that seems like a good way to save yourself £50.

It's probably due to the 32GB cards coming to Europe this week. I'm going to stick with my 8GB as long as possible. I suspect we'll get an announcement of a 64GB variant before the year's out, and the other ones are only going to get cheaper.

I imagine it's more of a load/heat issue. Sitting on the XMB or playing DVDs isn't going to put much strain on the system whereas things will kick into gear when playing games. Speaking of which, the machine is in a well ventilated position, yes? Not that I expect it really matters given how quickly you're running into freezing issues; a healthy unit should hold out far better even in an enclosed space.

Where did you buy it? It isn't second-hand, is it? Frankly it sounds like you've received a duff unit. From your wording I take it you bought it online which is a pain, but so long as you went through someone reputable it shouldn't be hard to arrange a replacement. I know it's annoying to have to wait a few more days, but in the long run it'll be better for your peace of mind to swap it now rather than try to troubleshoot what is likely a hardware fault.

Adjusted to better represent reality. I probably come across as pretty negative about this game, but I am looking forward to it. I'll actually be glad if they switch things up, even if it does seem like they might be taking all the wrong lessons from CoD.

If Argos do differentiate between online and in-store, couldn't you use their reserve and collect feature? I've a copy on the way from Amazon, despite already having the game on PC. The launch batch from there are all signed by a member of the development team, so I'll be sure to scour the credits to see what low ranking team member I got. Unfortunately the Microsoft Store still haven't shipped the 360 I bought over a week ago, so when the game does turn up I won't be able to play it. On the pile it goes...

I'm hoping to pick up some PX5s later in the month, but as of yet I can't vouch for them. They're supposed to be good, though. A slightly different solution I considered was buying some PX3s from Argos and twin them with an Ear Force DSS to add surround sound. It works out a bit cheaper and that headset has a built-in battery pack which I prefer to AAs.

I've never played Disgaea, but isn't it a simple percentage of how much stuff you've catalogued? Your 3 swords constitute 1.82% of all swords in the game and you've collected 6.00% of all Common rarity items in total; presumably the latter would take potions and such into account, if those are part of the game.

You have to meet one of the requirements for each category, though: Gaming, Entertainment and Social. So buying Fez will tick off the first one, but you'll still need to grind out video and YouTube time. If you only needed to satisfy one category for the 300 points then it would be hard not to earn them, given one eligible criteria is playing online multiplayer for 10 hours across the entire month.

You mean a 6KB unlock key will be for sale. Having maps as retailer exclusive content is simply bad practise. I appreciate that publishers feel they have to appease retailers, but kick them something more peripheral like a skin, not content that causes segregation amongst the player base.

To get it out there early, I wouldn't count on PS4 being backwards compatible. The rumours surrounding its basic makeup seem fairly consistent, and without an evolution of Cell — plus a switch from nVidia to ATi on top — the chances of emulation are slim. Could be they allow for some piece of optional hardware you slot in to the underside in order to play PS3 content, but that's seeming like a best case scenario. Microsoft's next console will probably have better footing on a technical level, but even then you're probably looking at a similar situation to playing original Xbox games on 360.

I'd rather they took the God of War tech and made Heavenly Sword 2. Realistically I have more modest — yet still unlikely — hopes, though: a protagonist that isn't Kratos.

Based on the video there aren't any button prompts for sorting options, so I fear such functionality will be needlessly Kinect exclusive. Whilst this doesn't actually have anything to do with the recent announcement, it seems apt to post it now anyway:

Now you understand why it isn't just Sean Connery that calls them Shitty Link. Rather than a delivery issue, my parcel problem is that the Microsoft Store hasn't even bloody sent it! I was prepared for a slight delay given the bank holiday weekend, but that doesn't seem to have gotten in the way of them taking my money.

I ordered a new Xbox and 4200 points from the Microsoft Store last weekend so I'd be all set for Fez, Trials and The Witcher 2. It hasn't even shipped yet. Speaking of Trials, here's a video of the improved stage creator: Looks like a proper LBP-to-LBP2 style jump.

I wouldn't be surprised if a WiiU version happened eventually; Capcom do love to port. At the moment they probably don't have MT Framework running on Nintendo's hardware properly whereas the technology is very mature on the 360 and PS3. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. RE5 was good fun despite some serious flaws, and from what the press are saying what's been shown seems to have more diverse pacing and improved mechanics.

A lot of people are dismissive of Lost Planet 2, but it was actually a good game. It had some mechanical problems and didn't have all its ideas in order, but the core experience was solid and further tweaking could have produced a decent hit. That said, Spark Unlimited? More like Lost Interest, am I right? (I'll wait for a gameplay trailer.)

Best I know of is HMV, which is £220 with either Golden Abyss, FIFA or Rayman. You can pick up a unit by itself for £180 from Zavvi's eBay outlet, though. I know you specified "not online", but it's where you're going to get the best prices.

The "actual DLC" was going to take place before the ending anyway. Speaking of DLC, there's new multiplayer content arriving on Tuesday for free: Obviously you'll need to unlock the new characters/weapons in the usual manner, but fresh maps are very welcome.

I'm in. The content's free and they can't make it any worse. That isn't a challenge, Walters.

If you can look past Alpha Protocol's foibles I certainly can't see Binary Domain's idiosyncrasies giving you pause. What better way to follow up a Sega-published game no one bought than with another one? Might as well line up a Yakuza marathon whilst you're at it.