Sheikah

The Planet Earth 5 Blu Ray Disc boxset for around £25 on most websites (e.g. Play and Amazon) is well worth the money, especially with how good it looks. I'm not normally into wildlife documentaries but it's definitely the one thing that can truly show you how good HD can be.

RIP... Clearly a very troubled man, but bless thee in sleep!

Maxibon are probably my favourite ice cream...the cake-like wafer part is simply delicious. But yeah, you have to eat the chocolate end first or else you're left with a melted mess.

A lot of places don't even advertise via job websites...you have to check to see if places have vacancies, often at the customer service department.

That was Rosa Klebb in the Bond film "From Russia With Love", I believe.

Have you played any more of this recently, Shadow?

I have to say that this is somewhat true. You can tell by the fact that people are even posting on these forums often during the day or regularly gaming that they aren't making getting a job their actual job. If people spent 9-5, 5 days a week actively seeking a job they would almost undoubtedly have one; part time or full. Not to sound harsh to some of you, but there's always work somewhere, and people are getting those jobs. Just the people putting more effort into getting the job are getting the jobs. :p Supermarkets are usually always taking people on even if just for overtime on checkouts.

I have to say, that's terribly amateur to dish out an infraction for something which you then went and did yourself.

There's loads of good gaming and anime papercraft on Ninjatoes' site: (friend made this one). Quite cool, some of these. The printable blueprints for them and instructions are there, but they'd take you ages to make.

Crikey...do you rinse your monitor with holy water every time something potentially unfavourable regarding the PS3 is posted? You're just sounding like a broken record with the constant rejection of anything but positive news to the PS3...it's really doing you no favours.

Oh yeah, you said that but I totally forgot. :p

What's your character's name, Shadow? Most people try and play on Skyline block 1 btw.

I'm a ranger. The great thing about them is that you can kill enemies quickly from a distance. Later on you get S rank hell and berserk needles, which basically means you can just about kill 5 enemies at once from a distance. Rangers also can increase attack and defense, but hunters can't.

Unfortunately with the number of people graduating from University these days, a degree alone doesn't mean all that much. My mum's work has loads of graduates all doing jobs far beneath them there.

I'll gladly help out any newcomer. I've got quite a few things that to any person starting would seem great (particularly units, such as those that give you an additional 100HP - you only start with about 50 or 60, depending on class!).

XD, that would be the Gay Nigger Association of America... Hope you get well soon, Eenuh - that sounds terrible. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Tales of Legendia inspired me to hate things. Before playing this I'd just stop playing a game if it wasn't my thing - but after enduring enough of this game, I was motivated to snap the disc in two. It's so easy to hate games now. Thank you Legendia.

He's joking, booyah!

We should really close the forum, because no one ever changes their mind about anything and everyone believes their own thing.

What's that got to do with anything? They destroyed a garden, not the world. Norg in the basement floor was the main funder...have you forgotten what happened in this game? :p Just seems like you used a few random points to discredit what is a very good story. I'd rather an RPG try with a story than just make a predictable fairytale story. You can definitely say the overall feel of most FF games differs greatly (traditional, futuristic, half rich/half ghetto), but not for DQ. lol, "well told". So if the story is shit, but well told, that's ok? :P Face it, it's just a nice bit of fairytale charm with a mute main character. They don't break boundaries, but they're fun. Totally wrong...Rinoa constantly pestered him with advances which subconsciously affected Squall...upon her becoming unconscious Squall realises what he truly wants, and what may have been snatched away from him should he not act. Squall starts out by piggybacking her across the really long bridge by FH, accompanying her to outer space, and then turning her in to the authorities. Finally, he manages to shake off his stupidity to go and rescue her. It's not as if that split second where he chooses to rescue her is where he switched DIRECTLY from emo to loving person. He had clearly been showing signs of change initially due to guilt from when she went unconscious. He was always deeply contemplating past events where he shunned her by her bedsit when she was in a coma and those contemplations preceded the events of his personality change. Sheer nonsense...with a mute character you have no room for development, and it's a common sign of a game with a weak story. How a character is supposed to be interesting when they don't even talk is beyond me. I guess...you can find their clothing or facial features interesting? Don't expect to hear what they really think, because they're not allowed to do that. A mute character works for games where people don't care about the story. People aren't buying DQ or Zelda for the story. If they were, they'd be terribly disappointed. Umm, Squall was from an orphanage, or have you forgotten? He was left deserted by Ellone, someone who he referred to as sis, and he pretty much closed up. Pretty believable, really. Many people's personalities are widely influenced by childhood but that doesn't mean they can't change. And what, you're angry that he changed only once? How many times do you expect people to change their personality? If any character changed their outlook on life more than once that would be fucking stupid. And seriously unbelievable, or likely unachievable within the length of time it takes to complete the game. And funny that, a woman for many men is a purpose in life to live for - if you've never seen or read the anime/mange Clannad I suggest you do so, because it's awesome. Now if you argued that a tuna sandwhich or a level up caused a character to change from not seeing much point in life to having a purpose then I'd agree with you. But clearly this is more important. Laguna was a cocky dick. Laguna's personality was TRANSPLANTED onto Zidane in FFIX, but it seemed to work better for him because he was a street urchin who, in all fairness, was allowed to be like that. Squall was a dick - a dick to everyone else. Which actually made him pretty cool, because it's fun to watch someone nonchalantly brush away others who all seem to think he's awesome. It's like a sort of modesty. But then he became not a dick, sorta. So it's all ok. Didn't who die? I guess you mean Seifer, but that was really obviously explained. The only non-explained part was what the hell was happening in the ending with Squall and losing his way, in that it never actually explained it in text within the game. But only people taking things absolutely literally would ever have a problem with VIII's story. Really.

I like DQ, just that it clearly has a fairytale story and relationships that aren't really grounbdreaking. It's a different kind of RPG, though.

Just about every RPG follows this...you're always saving the world. Always. And if you're not, then your main characters clearly aren't important enough to care about, lol. To be fair, you're not fighting an empire in FFVIII. You're fighting a sorceress in the future who is using mind control on people of the past. That really isn't such a cliche, as far as RPGs go. I have to say, it's really strange that you can't remember any towns from VIII or IX. IX EASILY had the best scenery in the game (Cleyra was as great as drawn backgrounds get), and the towns of Treno and Alexandria were freaking immense. I dunno, maybe you're just forgetful? I can remember most towns from the RPGs I've played. Onto Dragon quest...the games just aren't serious; as such they don't really have a story. It's just something like out of a storybook meant for light entertainment to accompany the game. The characters are limited by the story as they are part of said story, so really it's hand in hand. It's just that you get charcters who have a single mindset (e.g. in DQVIII: Yangus - rude and common, Angelo; cocky as hell and a womanizer, Jessica - bit of a bossy boots, main character - a mute...oh joy) that makes them somewhat memorable, but by no means developed. Btw - surely you can't be serious? You're trying to defy all the character of Squall with a single screenshot? Not sure if you're taking the piss or not but if you've played the game you'll remember that Squall changes drastically throughout the game, and doesn't want to talk to anyone at all for a lot of it. Cloud wasn't like that, as he did seem to talk to people. Just for a short segment at the beginning Cloud didn't care for the planet, but that really was it. Even though he was too afraid to admit he wasn't a SOLDIER he had in fact tricked himself into believing he was, so it's not as if his shame was causing him to act shy. Most Final Fantasy leads are usually very simple, single-layered and cocky or unrealistically quiet and generally uninteresting. The main focus of FFVIII is how Squall manages to change, and undertakes his true role as a SeeD; to protect the sorceress, now his lover. Him and Rinoa aren't part of the VIII logo for nothing.

Easily the most mature FF game to date; not centring around badass villains and apoclaypses but relationships and overcoming a troubled past. Compare this to most RPGs and you had something quite different. At least compared to cliched Dragon Quest storybook plotlines, this story was actually very worthwhile.

Again, MBT1 is far more down the skill (power-ups weren't everywhere and gaining power-ups required you to go for bananas rather than targets), and the points system isn't bloated. To land on the real money you have to have great skill (try the cork), and you can easily get rid of the wind with just 1 banana each turn. You have to build up for power ups, whereas in Target 2 they were just idly floating in the sky. Plus 2 tacced on pointless things such as multiple balls, which made the whole thing more gimmicky and less skill-based. Regarding turns - this was much better as it caused all focus to fall on the person playing and allow maximum concentration, and they couldn't have their run ruined by a second player. If you wanted to do a perfect run, totally dependent on your skill, you wouldn't want a random factor such as a second player. Turns are the way it should have always been. Rest of the mini games: all pretty much shit, so it wouldn't really matter whether they were improved or not. Except maybe for a bit of Fight, but that was easily more fun in 1.

QFT Monkey Ball 1 was full of skill-requiring levels, whereas MB2 was littered with levels where you had to just find out the trick to it (often a play and pause button in many levels, for instance). MB1 target was also far better, as MB2 tried to complicate it all and didn't have the same feel to it. Played them both to death, and they really are fantastic games.