Sheikah

Oh, I see. Clearly if the first couple of hours were linear, we should write off the whole game as linear. Of course the first couple of hours were linear. It's called the introduction. Freedom comes at the price of a good story. For instance, if you can complete the game in a variety of ways then there's more and more variables, resulting in them having to create a story for each outcome, as opposed to one very good, refined story. A lot of games create fake freedom by letting you visit places in whatever order you choose. But as long as you still go to those places anyway, it's hardly freedom. True freedom games are rarely as memorable or have as good stories as more linear games, and once you really approach true freedom you're practically playing The Sims. If you had the ability to save Aeris in FFVII then she wouldn't have become nearly as popular as she did, as well as if you could have converted Sephiroth to the side of good, etc. Sometimes what they want you to see turns out to be the best story after all.

Definitely. Scally fucker - filmmaker? Ripping DVDs doesn't count. Deliberately aggressive and acting like a twat, it's no surprise they walked his way. I wouldn't like it if someone started filming me. And at the end of the day, the officers were young/inexperienced and it's unlikely you'd know every law (particularly the less important ones) to know whether filming them was legal or not. I don't know everything about my subject off by heart, either. Besides, what you see in the news/Youtube is generally outnumbere by 100,000 daily processes that all go smoothly. To write off the police because of incidents that draw attention is a bit silly.

Any land car had abberant steering...most of the reviews picked up on this. Even the presets. It felt like they were greased, and unresponsive. There were countless faults with this game, so it's no surprise it's a fiver. I remember making a topic about most the problems when I got it (I was actually looking forward to this). I remember having to pick up your jiggies and physically transport them to have them count, which was just ridiculous. The worst bit was the gameplay. Every single thing you do basically involves racing from one point to another. Which would be great, if this were a racer. Instead it's more of a taxi passenger system or collect X number of random items. Ack. It was such a letdown, and reflected by sales, critic and public opinion.

Not what the majority of people think. But even in its own category of hybrid racer/building game it's pretty dire. The handling feels like shit.

Valentine's for me was a great day! I finished work at 5, got back home and quickly prepared to go out. Met my girlfriend at the station (back from a PhD interview at Cambridge) with a bunch of roses, then went back to hers and gave her a framed photo of us both, a card and some nice chocolates. After much romance ( ) we finally head out to Sapporo Teppanyaki and have a wonderful Valentine's meal. Two appertisers, a starter, a main course and some homemade ice cream and strawberries for dessert. A bit much for her to eat everything, so I helped there. Then we walked back and got in for past midnight (it was a late booking). I'm in such a happy mood! I'm still in labs at this time but in a happy mood. Crazy. She's unbelievably awesome and I love her tons.

This has to be one of the best internet services I've heard of. Does the shit game filter come as standard?

Unfortunately people would complain if one person received a more severe punishment / more points on the license for an identical crime. On the one hand, like you said, one law often doesn't fit all. On the other hand, once you start making exceptions or hand out varying punishments, people will call unfairness. You can't win either way. At the end of the day there will always be a human being or a collective body passing judgement on somebody, which is where the problem is. It's human nature.

The games are mostly the same across titles. The game format usually has a few new things every edition, but is largely the same. It's clearly mostly about the gameplay (at least with disgaea 3, the story was pretty dire - can't imagine there being much difference across titles), which undeniably stays fairly constant. Given the story is mostly told to you in short sections before a battle begins...well...yeah. The gameplay is good, but like the dynasty warriors games after X number of sequels; tired. It's great for people with nothing better to do than endless grinding and equipment hoarding. But yeah, I can't see it being a better game than FFXIII will be. Even though I didn't particularly like FFXII, it was a solid game that was far more fleshed out than a disgaea title. it felt like I was playing a PS1 game when I played disgaea 3 on PS3. Every main FF title so far (bar XI, which in fairness was a fully online MMORPG) has been a reasonably enjoyable epic title, so I don't see how this will be any different.

Suspicion is part of a policeman's job. Without it they would be useless. Yes, they should monitor youths stood outside a shop. Yes, particularly if they are dressed like / have the demeanor of chavs. Why? Because statistically, people matching these descriptions do the majority of this sort of crime. Asserting a police presence is a proven method to prevent crime. Whether the people were going to commit a crime or not (most likely: not) is irrelevant; their job is to reduce possibility. And through simply talking to people it's hardly skin off anyone's nose. They would not be majorly inconvenienced. An example is where someone who seemed quite suspicious was taking an empty bucket around our (fairly nice) neighborhood towards the end of the day. Without sounding too judgmental, he seemed to be eying up the properties as he approached the doors and asked people if they wanted their car cleaning. My dad reported him to the police because he was honestly one seemingly dodgy person. Within 10 minutes a police car had driven up and down the road. Now this man probably wouldn't have robbed anyone, but anything that seems a bit suspicious is very easily checked up on by the police. How much effort is it to just have a small check, or a chat? And if the police had done nothing, and he had gone on to burgle someone's property, no doubt the police would have been blamed. One small bit of effort that doesn't really affect anyone too much can possibly prevent a huge load of aggro down the line. Easy. People need to have a cup of tea and stop getting offended so fucking easily.

Oh I show love every day, but it's a day that you try to make extra special. I'm guessing most people don't book hotels, meals and special events all in one day, every day of the year. It's a day that drives people to pull out all the stops, more than they would every other day of the year. It's like your birthday. Technically if you were born on the 13th of February 1990 you would be 7304 days old, and tomorrow you'd be 7305 days old. Except another way of looking at it is that today you'd be 19, and tomorrow 20. Really there's no reason why you should celebrate tomorrow, as you'd just be an extra day older, yet people consistently do. Have you ever celebrated your birthday? Valentine's is no different. It's an event that people can choose to celebrate, and it's fun and full of love. It doesn't mean that they fail to show love the other 364/365 days of the year. So yeah.

I don't know; Tesco just advertised on TV that they're selling 12 red roses for £5. Can't vouch for their quality, though.

I'm half expecting moaning from people who itch at the thought of this date, but who is doing anything nice this Sunday? I suppose the reason I ask is because this is my first Valentine's with my new girlfriend, who I love stupendously, and has shown me that there are genuine, lovely women out there who aren't just trying to selfishly manipulate you. On the same day last year I was taking a homebaked vegan chocolate and strawberry cake to my (then) girlfriend's house to surprise her, who immediately took me to the shop for ten minutes while the person she was cheating on me with fled from her house. And funnily enough, I was subject to a lecture from her mother afterwards about not giving them notice that I was turning up. Truly a nasty family. It's heavily commercialised, but I believe it's a time where you reflect on your relationship (if you have one) and try pull out all the stops. If you genuinely love someone, you'll be happy to put in the extra time and effort one day a year to make them feel truly special. Because given how busy people sometimes are, they actually need a set day when they can focus on each other. This Sunday we're booked in at the excellent Sapporo Teppanyaki in Manchester, what I can only describe as a glorious Japanese restaurant. The chefs are unbelievably talented and fun to watch, and the food is great:

It's a shemale with incorporated tin opener.

Hayyy guyshh. Seriously, what socially retarded individual would wear those. Reminds me of this: Things I want: Final Fantasy XIII, White Knight Chronicles, that Edgeworth game, possibly Heavy Rain (seems a little overhyped currently; time shall tell). Things I need: None of those, if I'm to be a good scientist.

Like jammy said, it's harder. Going from no console with no fanbase to market leader is harder than going from 3rd place (narrowly, not much behind the Xbox to be fair) with a huge number of fans who like many of the first party games and would guarantee the console would at least shift somewhat no matter what. If you start with nothing, it's much harder than at least starting with something. And Nintendo have always had a huge number of 'safe bet' fans.

Royal, although aside from the very beginning the class makes next to no difference. It's just base starting stats, and even a barbarian can be a magician, etc. The royal just starts out with better equipment (for instance, the ring that regenerates MP) and being Soul L1 you can shape them more. I read about the classes and apparently the thief and barbarians are the hardest for the first level, so kudos to doing it with a thief. Apparently stats don't make too much difference in the grand scheme of things and it's mostly down to technique. Although time will tell...

I got the American version for 43.90...it was a UK-based person selling a load (they had 71, sold out now). Bit pricey but compared to the 40 on import sites that would probably slap me with an import tax and a long delivery, it didn't seem too bad.

Just received this and been playing through it. Thankfully I got through the first major level with only a couple of deaths at the start, then a load of gameplay which didn't end in a death. I'm really enjoying it so far...has anyone else decided to import this since the last few posts? It seems to have got many awards like 'RPG of the system', 'game of the year' from various places.

Yep, it's worth getting the premium because it'll play around 60% of PS2 games, and usually most of the ones I want to play. I've happily put my PS2 away and there's more shelf space. Plus you can save them all to a huge HDD rather than crappy memory cards, and use the PS3 controller to play them.

Yeah...this is out now. £7.99 on the PSN Store. I recommend it to anyone.

To be fair, they have given Disgaea 2 85% despite every Disgaea being near identical and being practically all battles. I sincerely doubt FFXIII is a less enjoyable game.

Baked cheesecakes are the best. Most chilled ones taste like nasty supermarket brand wobbly cream and biscuit. That's not how cheesecake is meant to be. It turned out well, but my dad took a chunk out of it, and it's in a box now. Maybe I'll take a picture of it with my phone later but it's unlikely... Here was the recipe: http://www.chocolate-source.co.uk/chocolate_recipes_cheesecake_jades_chocolate_cheesecake.htm

I'm currently baking a chocolate cheesecake. It should be done soon, so fingers crossed it'll turn out ok.

Yeah, I feel the same. Makes it seem not all that serious, like just any other day! Congrats btw.

Ha, sounds fun. I like a good challenge!