The Bard

I don't see why it wouldn't be morally fine to keep having sex if there's an understanding between the two of you that it's a temporary arrangement and commitment free. If you're getting laid it might actually help you not dive headfirst into whatever relationship opportunity comes your way just because you're wanting the sex.

I'd be up for playing this online. I kind of hate the inertia of the character and gun movement, but I can imagine it being reasonably fun with friends.

Like above, the fighting has traditionally been a bit simplistic (although they shook things up in Wind Waker where I think it felt best). Really I'd like Zelda to have more metroid about it. More mystery, ambiance and atmosphere. It already tends to item gate, but to the point where whole dungeons won't be available to you without a particular item or spell. I'd rather be able to get a taste of everything from the off so that every item acquisition sets of that magical chime in the back of my head (as well as in the game) that makes me remember that I can go to a fuckton of new places.

I'm from Manchester, went to MGS down the road from UoM. I hate that place (Manchester in general), but it's cool that UoM actually got as far as having a proper gaming editor - we just had a couple of reviews here and there from dull witted bong ripping CoD fiddlers.

@Serebii. Absolute lol at the idea that therapy doesn't help, I know from first hand evidence that it really fucking does. It creates an environment in which you can challenge your established patterns of thought, something that there is no way, no matter how powerful your mind or will, that you can do by yourself without the help of someone who understands, professionally, the effect of thought on emotion. Also, apparently knowing nothing about the way SSRIs work you're going to make a clueless judgment call on their worth. All they do is increase post synaptic serotonin, which by itself does precisely nothing. So does a turkey sandwich. The effect it has over time is to actually start hippocampal neurogenesis (a process that's inhibited in depressive/anxious people) - ie. create new brain cells in the part of your brain that deals with storing long term memories. That helps you stop ruminating on anxiogenic and depressive thoughts that've become recurrent and entrenched over time. Which by the way is the exact effect doing thirty minutes of moderate to intense aerobic exercise every day for a few weeks has. But of course, if you prize your genuinely shit way of thinking, by all means refuse the help medicine can afford you. You haven't gotten as far as admitting that there's a problem.

While "on a whim" seems to be Nintendo's entire strategy for the Wii U, I don't really think the amount of time and floorspace given to it at E3, as well as the fact that it was put out bundled with the Wii U, put it in the place of a stylistic test. Also, what was there that year for the console? Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U. Monster Hunter 3 for the Japanese crowd. Everything else of note were ports of games that were actually better (and a fraction of the price) on the previous generation of consoles and PC. So there's my evidence, in the tradition of facts - where the fuck's yours? Can't comment on Halo, I never liked it but unlike Zelda, it's every single game released in the series with both the original game and a redone remaster of it in an engine made for a console one or two generations removed. Sounds good for the fans. Also with Zelda, you can play the exact same game on the Gamecube (I'd argue the better version because the colours are softer, more saturated and there's none of that awful lighting). Meanwhile, the Halo anniversary lets you play the multiplayer from the first two games, neither of which are available any longer, the second of which was lauded enough to be played for money on MLG. Those are a bunch of reasons. Second thing; GTA5 isn't a remake, it's the same game released a few months later with a better resolution and framerate, for people who were holding out on getting it because of the new consoles. Such as me. Same goes for Last of Us. The difference really is that the remakes are not all there fucking is. With the Wii U there is absolutely no surety that the console is going to have legs into next year. With the PS4 and One, I know for absolutely certain that I'm going to get a landslide of good stuff to play going forward just because those consoles, and by extension the PC, have the entire industry's backing. Wii U has Nintendo who aren't interesting to me anymore. This can be answered by the same points I made above, both in this post and the one prior. Reading comprehension needs an upgrade.

Excellent it'll match my other small dongle.

Does that headset work on PC by the way?

Hyperbole and misrepresentation seem to be the name of the game for you, so let's get our fact on: Fact - noun: Something empirically verifiable; known to exist or to have happened. Let's start with the first assertion in that bilious pile of hot street trash you typed up there; there are no "remakes" on PS4 to my knowledge - upping the resolution, framerate and some physics effects on Tomb Raider doesn't count as either a "remake" or "tons," but more just extending the lifespan of a recently released game by making it available to people who want to play a console equivalent of the way the game was being played on PC anyway. Tomb Raider was an aside in the next gen release schedule. Compare that to Nintendo reaching into their increasingly shallow pocket for a game released in 2002, upscaling and adding a bunch of hideous lighting effects to the last good game in one of their mainline series, and presenting it as pretty much the biggest release that year for their flagship console. The second point; the idea that either third party games aren't worthwhile or that they play better on PC is dishonest and moot, and I suspect that the only reason you're begrudging the fact that those games actually make up a large part of the next gen release schedule is because the current Nintendo console won't be sharing in any of that gravy. The fact that by "superior" you seem to mean basically nothing other than graphical improvements pretty much undermines your entire rationale for owning a Wii U in the first place. Every game on Wii U would play better elsewhere but that hypothetical possibility isn't making you not play those games is it? In the same way, between Console and PC, there's a give and take; sure if you're willing to spend the money you'll likely get a graphically better experience on PC, but there are qualitative differences between it and console; PC doesn't have the same system and network infrastructure, your friends might not be on PC, you might like the way it integrates your other media and leisure activities, you might prefer a console's ease of use or the fact that exclusive games actually come out for it that aren't the same shit you've been playing since you were three. Those qualitative differences are there and almost none of them are shared by the Wii U. If you say "the gamepad" even that, as facetious and embarrassing a point as it is, is still available on the other consoles. Nobody cares that you like the Wii U, I'm sure there are lots of legitimate reasons to, but your arguments are genuinely appalling and it seems so obvious that you'll say literally anything to ease the psychological burden of having chosen an almost political allegiance to a fucking console manufacturer.

I've been waiting for something like this. Most Metal Gear games are too long for me to take my time and enjoy myself, the first thing that's on my mind is finishing it for the main narrative, so I'll only end up doing each scenario one or two different ways. With this I'm totally going to play it a dozen times with different rules; don't get seen, don't kill anyone, kill everyone, use only the AA guns etc. Hoping that Phantom Pain looks a bit more "next gen," because you can tell that there were some constraints put on this with it being a cross gen game.

The most unexpected thing ever is that Ground Zeroes is actually really fucking good, it's making me very excited for Phantom Pain. If only that hack Sutherland wasn't in it. What's even his pedigree? 24, which is one of the worst shows I've ever seen. It's actually kind of making me hate the character because every time he opens his mouth, I hear Sutherland's dickthroat voice.

Were you and Map partied up? Been trying to abuse my fireteam today as well but nobody can hear anything. I like this game. Feels like Borderlands but the shooting feels better. The versus multiplayer is kind of shit though.

Am I missing something or is there actually no proximity voice chat in the game? Been yelling at @Daft for like half an hour.

I'll be playing this in a bit, it's taking forever to download. Are any of you going to be on in about half an hour?

Dude, he was just some guy from halfway across the world that I didn't know personally. Forgive me for not being too emotionally moved by him dying. I think it's weird you're reading active disrespect into a slightly flippant comment, and also find it weird that you're defending some sort of right to have his death represented in a way that would be more fitting for a friend or someone you know personally. Did you go on forums and complain about people being irreverent when Michael Jackson or Nelson Mandella died? The point of the post was that the Bombcast didn't have the same energy as it did before, so I stopped listening. Also I don't understand how you can stand listening to The Geekbox, Higgins and Fitch are the most outrageously thick people I've ever listened to.

Yeah but MRod's roles are such caricatures. Just putting a woman in a position that you would expect a man to occupy is a bit of a trite gesture if you don't also back it up with other things that try to depict a female experience. As for Samus, it didn't really matter that she was a woman in the games - I guess you could argue with the slight exception of the baby Metroid imprinting on her - and in that sense it's completely immaterial whether she's a man or a woman or a robot. Except for when they start putting her in a skin suit so you can see her titties. So, yeah, I guess in a sense she does capture a female experience in the sense that that part of her identity exists almost entirely for sweaty nerds to cop a look at her ass in the Smash Bros. pause screen.

Not to bring up an old shitty game, but Killzone has to be one of the worst games I've played in the last five years. So so bad

Right. But he died, and then the Bombcast got boring. That's pretty much the extent of how I feel about it so it would be disingenuous of me to write about it in woebegone terms.

Point taken about just the fact of saying a character is a woman has an effect on the way you think about the character. I think the point that I'm trying to make is that Samus being a woman is neither here nor there, it's completely meaningless. She could be a robot for all it matters. Although I don't really believe that Samus being an enduring character is either true, or is the case because of the character itself. I think if you have any sort of attachment to Samus it's because of the quality of the games she's appeared in, and their enduring appeal compared to Doom and Contra, which don't really have any sort of emotional ambiance to begin with. The only attachment I have to Samus comes from the worlds she typically finds herself in more than anything else.

The first one worked, thanks a bunch!

Woo PS4 just arrived, does anyone have a spare Destiny beta key they could hook me up with?

I am doing a philosophy degree.

I was really just saying that it's a bit wankish to suggest that Samus being a "woman" really means anything in the Metroid games in the same way that thinking that saying Mario is an Italian plumber means anything. Historically it was nothing more than a dude-looks-like-a-lady inversion, and recently it's become a way to get some TnA into Smash Bros. The way to go about empowering women isn't to deny that there are any differences between men and women, but to distinguish between is and aught. Is there a physiological/cultural difference between dudes and chicks? Yes. Aught we to treat women as social inferiors because they don't tend to have a predilection for shooting space aliens? No. Shoehorning women into traditionally male gender roles is boring, tacky and meaningless.

Dude you just want an excuse to slap down your gigantic smash wang. I'm fucking awful at it. We gotta do SF3 as well. I've got two arcade sticks and a thesaurus full of abuse. Hopefully @Dyson can make it too.

Last year was the first year since the meets started that I didn't come. Going to make it count double this time.