Jamba

Dude, I'm all for fighting your corner about having your own opinion but helping continue this bullshit analysis for over a page is not doing anyone's sanity any favours. I think you have a right to not like BSG but to jump into a thread about liking it and trying to petrol bomb the floor is only going to get people's backs up. And yes it's all down to how you say it. And if you don't respect anyone than can you please go away. We have enough of people banding around the "fuck all of yaz" attitude. Now can we all STFU and get back on topic.

Just watched this and actually quite surprised at the combination of good production with some very dodgy script in places. (I say good as in good for English TV). VERY dark though and they brought up some very tough situations which I'm looking forward to hearing more about (halo virus anyone?). Also, DANIEL from Ugly Betty!?

I only have a small general thought to add here... I think the mass influx in the UK has given people a very large culture shock. I think that it's been difficult for a generation of people to see the country that they grew up in change so much and whilst I don't agree with their animosity towards immigrants, I do understand. Also it's a delicate balance. A lot of people feel that the minority cultures that immigrate to the UK are allowed defend their culture but it seems a bit unfair for people who already live in the UK to defend their values as this is somehow perceived as being racist or inflexible. Take the hijab for instance. I don't think that people who defend wearing it that to an older British culture that covering your face or hair make you look as if you are trying to hide your identity. This is something that many people feel makes you look suspicious. I think that there is a double standard when it comes to this kind of thing.

Combined, these summarise my thoughts on the matter completely.

Yes it's Optimus for sure. He's using Jetfire's booster pack which he then dumps before getting out his sword and taking it to the decepti-creeps. I wouldn't hold your hopes up about confusion in this movie. A lot of why you can't tell the difference is down to the design as the characters all have very similar silhouettes and bumblebee and ratchet are the only characters that have been given an easily visible colour identifier.

That does look like a nicely choreographed sequence. The action seems to be getting better as the films go on. I very much going to wait for reviews before I spend my money to see this. Never thought I would say that about anything to do with Transformers.

Awww (s)he's a badass. Look at those swipey paws Put a hood on it and call it Taokaka!

Oh seriously can we please start typing full sentences! It's doing my head in having to read it... Rez can we just leave this discussion with the following facts: You - Think this film will be good and you have your reasons which other people not share. Paj - Has not seen anything to make a judgement on the quality of the film yet for himself. Other people share this view.

Diageo, you do realise that the language you pick does seem like you're spoiling for a fight so please don't get upset when one comes to your door. Also no one was commenting on you opinion of BSG rather that by the way you have written earlier, you make it seem like the entire concept of spiritualism, religion and the definition of "alive" are just dull despite them being some of the most heavily studied topics of all human existence. I'm not going to bash you for not liking BSG but I think that your explanation of why could do with some work.

This is looking pretty good but i'd need a hands on to tell if it's something i'd pay money for. Explosions and action are damn cool! Loving the visceral the experience is. Must admit though... the chopper doing a barrel made me cringe a little.

Now I might be wrong but I think that you're smart enough to distinguish something that is an adults choice and something that is hugely immoral, unethical, exploitative and breaks all modern definition of human rights. Have you been auditioning to write for the Daily Mail again?

Yeah that was a dark episode... feel so much for Chief

This looks interesting but I'll agree with Paj, not sure if it will get past the "ok" mark.

Or Snapdragon. The airship is interesting and could possibly be soundwave coming in to land (bit hard to tell how big he was in RotF). Glad to see that Optimus is still rocking the kit he picked up. I'm still pissed that it all seems to be in the same settings again. I know skyscrapers make for good set design but I thought we were heading for space this time...

Ah that's a better response than I could have hoped for! "It works so well I didn't even think about it" is much more telling that a list of pros and cons.

Yeah true maybe I should see the funny side of this, which I can now that I know this is taken out of context on purpose. Apologies for the outburst everyone although I think that it is reasonable to have misread this.

Thanks for pointing this out. Weed is by no way harmless but I do think that the majority of people who smoke up do so more habitually than drinking. To me this where the issue is and I can't stress the hidden pitfalls of triggering major psychological conditions which people seem to overlook. On legalisation, I agree that control and tax would be a benefit. I would maybe even suggest banning the stronger forms just in the same way that very high APV drinks are banned here.

Right... I forgot the lulz caveat of the internet.

Wow. I knew there was a reason I don't come to the meet ups anymore. Congratulations to all of you who enjoy sitting behind the cowardice of your keyboards, judging and harassing others even if in an attempt at being slightly amusing. You guys can't just shut up and leave something alone that you don't agree with? If you took 2 seconds to stop trying to imitate Charlie Brooker you might realise that you're not funny, just amazingly rude.

Is this still gonna happen or was that your detailed stuff.... anticipation is killing me :p

There is one thing that I am curious about. One of my main gripes with the PSP thumb slider was that it was hard to get a sense of where 0 (the middle point) was. It didn't return to there well. Is this fine with the 3DS?

Oh and another point.... I want the sleep mode to be easily distinguished from turning off. I rarely knew when my PSP was properly off and I found that it managed to run down the battery badly.

There are somethings about this game that I really liked and I want to start with this as it does deserve some major praise as well as criticism: 1. Midna - Best character Nintendo has made in ages. I thought she was well scripted and I loved her almost sweet'n'sour relationship with Link. Decent bit of comedy and she had depth even if it was inferred rather than pointed out directly. 2. I liked the new editions to the world. Oockoo and Yeti were class and I would happily see the in future games (oh wait! ST had Yeti... YAY!) 3. Visual direction - I thought this was sublime. Character design, use of colour in many places, a feeling of culture and beauty. I do wish that they had used a slightly less washed out palette. I remember that the dark world sections used to look more like underwater Hyrule in WW but the over bloomed look they ended up using gelled very well with Wolf and Midna. 4. Opening village - This was lovely and I genuinely felt connections to the people there. It was vibrant and full of life. I loved the fact that there was a pregnant woman there as it added to that sense of community. Now here come the gripes and I promise to keep them to my major ones as I can complain or criticise things til the cows come home: 1. Understimulated - I really felt that the whole way through the game that I wasn't challenged or had to use my brain. The dungeons extremely poor for this as practically every room I went into, I easily identified every puzzle element in a heart beat not asking me to use my brain for the majority of the game. Everything about the level design screamed it was so obvious especially out in the field where things were "labelled" to use a particular weapons in places. This filtered into the bosses, the only well designed ones of which were hugely spoilt by review and preview videos. 2. Weapons - This was something that PH really remedied. Each weapon in this game could do pretty much 1 thing and usually that was a bit tame. Many of them were rehashes of tired old weapons (don't give a shit about the bow anymore!) or could only be used in very specific "labelled" places. 3. Pace and Predictability - This was a killer as I knew what was coming for the majority of the game as soon as I identified it: Enter area as wolf and collect tears Enter dungeon and complete as Wolf Get interrupted by mandatory sidequest grrrrrr.... Enter same dungeon as Link and collect dungeon weapon. Use dungeon weapon repeatedly until bored of it before having to kill boss with said weapon Leave for next area only to be interrupted by mandatory side quest before being able to enter. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game. *sigh* 4. Dilution - Many of the joys of Zelda games (and Metroid games) is revisiting places and finding a completely new dimension to them. OoT, MM, LttP and MC were masterful at this as they all had ways of making you go back through an area in a completely different way, sometimes 3 or 4 times. It really felt like they used the areas in the game to their full capacity. TP heavily failed to do this, which included with a pregnant over world made the whole world feel watered down. 5. Lack of Adventure - I think this is mostly down to how dull Link seemed but there were only a few times where I felt like I was genuinely in danger or excited by the adventure of TP. Sneaking into Hyrule in OoT alone was better than most of the dungeons for this feeling. So yeah there you have it. I was much happier with PH and ST as Zelda games despite their flaws. I'm much happier that Nintendo re-focused on the fun side of Zelda rather than the dramatics. I also think that Zelda to be truly great again it needs to be completely rethought in terms of gameplay and design. It's falling into the JRPG trap now...

Thanks d.d that was a really good hands on impression. I still think that I'm going to hang on a little bit before I buy it but my spirits are definitely lifted. Looking forward to hearing some hands on impressions with SF4 and Pilotwings. I'm really happy that Capcom have an engine working so well on the system this early on. Having a 3rd party like them so heavily invested in the system reminds me of the good ol' days of the SNES. Let's hope that Konami stay in the game too. Now all we need is Gargoyle's Quest and Battletoads to be back and I would official explode my pants.

I'd definitely say so; Kaz is obviously making some good headway. Sony sound like they have finally learnt one of their biggest lessons in making games, which brings a very big smile to my face. For 2.5 generations of hardware, they have been making systems that are very difficult to program for and that put them at a massive disadvantage near the beginning of each generation. This approach will really give devs something to be excited about but I do worry about a lot of ports from the PS3. Maybe we will see "double play" versions of games like you get with Disney films so you can have the PS3 version AND the NGP version. But then I worry.... my biggest gripe with the PSP (apart from the XMB) is that very few games were designed for a handheld experience. A lot of that came from the hardware itself (loading times, poor battery life) but many of the games completely forgot that you needed to be able to have a quick blast of fun. I see that being the same problem with ports from PS3.