The Jaded Gamer

When I realised games would be big

2008-01-23T12:34:00.000Z

It was the end of 1986, a year when Bon Jovi reigned supreme and the disasters of Chernobyl and Challenger were still fresh in my mind.

I'd been swimming at the local leisure center, Beau Sejour, and decided to hit the rather small games arcade which consisted of about 15 or so arcade machines including some favourites as Star Wars and Gauntlet. There, in the mostly deserted arcade, was a new driving game in the place of Pole Position.

Up to this point I couldn't have cared less about driving games but the screen on this machine was a whir off full-screen colours, cars flying past and cool music blaring out.

I trundled over to the machine and wrestled the change out of my pocket and was soon behind the wheel of one open-topped Red Ferrari with a blonde woman in the passenger seat.

Not only were the graphics beautiful and everything moving and a phenomenal rate but it played well and rewarded great driving not with another boring lap of the same but with an entire new environment.

I was hooked and it suddenly dawned on me that games weren't always going to be these odd little curiosities for geeks tucked away in dark corners or in kids bedrooms.

They were evolving and would push computer hardware and artists imagination to the limits.

That game was Outrun and I enjoyed Outrun 2 just last week with my little brothers on a multi-player arcade setup hidden away in the French alps.

Ah memories,

Trant

Free Live Title Announced

2008-01-18T17:33:00.001Z

As the last 'Jaded-gamer' who is still posting(again), I thought I'd bring your attention to the title that Microsoft will be offering to the public to make up for the Live! problems over Christmas...

*drum roll*

Undertow!

Actually, I was expecting worse to be fair, I may download it even though I'm not particularly interested in it.

As this will probably be the last post on JG(again), thank you all for watching/reading. (But you never know, the other 'contributors' may actually get off their respective asses, courtesy of this guilt-trip)

Mass Effect?

2007-11-26T09:45:00.000Z

"So Lab, were you massively affected by Mass Effect?" - It's a good question, especially for you.

I'll just ramble on about things in no particular order, and you make up your own mind if I love/hate the game from there, which sounds like much less work on my part.
Let's start with the texture pop-up; it isn't particularly game-ruining, but there is a lot of it, and due to its sheer quantity it does serve to break the immersion on occasion. In a strange way you get so used to it being bad that you don't notice it after a while, which I guess is one way to fix a bug.

The music is fantastic, almost reaching Halo and Homeworld standards, and then there is the facial animation which is equally awesome... most of the time. Graphically the game is superb (bar the previously mentioned texture issue), and the overall quality and design quickly gloss over concerns about the uneven frame-rate. It I did feel like the developers had cut a lot of corners, to the point where I thought the packaging might actually be approaching round. For instance the item names are very generic, with repeating names and roman numerals denoting power. Then there were the side missions, which suffered from a very cookie-cutter level design. Then there's the lift on the Normandy (which you end up using quite a bit) which shares a sense of expediency with zero-G treacle. There are other elevators in the game that are similarly mellow or long-winded, but at least you get plot related guff to listen to on most occasions.

Combat is a strange mechanic, you have all these abilities and modes, yet I plowed through most of the game without touching any of them. Every now and again one of my party would bust out some bizarre move and the enemy I was shooting at would float around as though they had sat on a helium suppository.

To be honest, I think I could go on for a while listing stuff I liked/hated. The one thing that I was constantly thinking while playing the game was, "FFS, what were the testers/developers thinking/doing?" This happens a lot when I play games these days, but with a small amount of changes Mass Effect could wiped the floor in the GotY competition.

These aren't just empty words on my part. Take the slow loading textures for instance, just have a slightly longer loading screen by default and an option for "Fast loading/slow textures" in the options. *fixed*
A short tutorial on the Force powers... oops, I mean Biotics. *fixed*
Make the AI squad members less willing to sacrifice you when selecting cover *fixed*
A button for the Asari (that's the blue girl for you hard of thinking types) that instantly reduces her level of clothing to bra & knickers *fixed*

Sod it, I will rate it after all, seeing as you asked so nicely: 9.3739287/10

FREE Stuff on Xbox Live

2007-11-16T08:47:00.001Z

Microsoft are giving away a game and 500 MS Points to celebrate the five year anniversary of Xbox Live!, of course there are a few requirements but they shouldn't be a problem if you're a gamer. Just log onto Live now and download the full version of Carcassone (I have no idea if I spelt that correctly, and am not feeling bad about it either as it's a stupid name). If you've been a Live member since the start then go to this link and claim your 500 points. PS: This is a time limited offer, so get your finger out.

In other news, Crysis (henceforth referred to as Crapsis) is absolute arse. If anyone tells you differently then they've either been brainwashed by EA or have been living under a rock, and this state of geological habitation has caused them to miss just how far the FPS genre has come in the past 10 years. Bottom line?: Crapsis is utter bollocks whose only use will be for benchmarking.

See? You got a free rant too, talk about value.

EverQuest 2 - Ruins of Kunark

2007-11-14T15:04:00.000Z

To be honest, I'm not sure how I ended up buying this expansion. I'd made up my mind not to, closed all Station Store browser windows that I'd subconsciously opened up, but still ended up getting the damn thing. I assume that I must have blacked out for a short period, and will blame the French for it, as usual. Anyway, might as well tell you what the deal is with the game to offset the £26 hole in my bank account.

We have a new continent, called Kunark. It's pretty large and caters for levels 1-20 and 65-80. If you're in the middle of those two ranges you'll need to go elsewhere. On the subject of the continent, I have to wonder about the sea captains in EQ2. Looking at the world map it's bloody huge, and not far from Kelethin either - and still they took 3 years to find the bloody thing! Dual-wielding eye-patches for the win! Myopic navigators aside, it's your typical EQ2 setting, and by that I mean reasonable graphics with an extremely poor frame-rate. You also get a new race, with horns made of so many polygons that things turn into a slide show if you get two of them within a mile of each other. So as you can imagine, when in the starter area it's quicker to print the view with a 1980's dot-matrix printer rather than bothering your VGA card.

Also of note is the new card game, which initially I thought was going to be a rip-off of Vanguard's Diplomacy. What it makes up for in complexity it loses out on integration, aside of finding cards as loot in EQ2 there is no link between the two systems. Summary of the card game: Pretty but ultimately pointless; think of it like an iPhone where people think you're retarded instead of gay... and retarded.

Summary of the EQ2 expansion: Dont't know to be honest, ask me if I ever make it to 65. Oh well, at least I wasted your time too ;)

Still A Lie - A Portal/PS3 Parody

2007-11-02T14:50:00.000Z

*Sung (or hummed depending on your vocal talent) to the Portal end credits song.
Lyrics by me during a short period of boredom :)

This was an own-goal
We're making a note here:
HUGE DISTRESS
It's hard to overstate
our consternation.
We're Arrogant Sony
We claimed what we did
because we could.
For the good of all us.
Except the ones who believed.

But there's no sense crying
over every piss-take.
We'll just keep on lying
See how much you can take.
And the consoles don't sell
and we make the best pun
for the fanboys left believing
the lie.

Ken's not even angry
He's playing his PS3 right now.
Even though there's no good games
to play with.
and not many movies.
and an ever shrinking hardware spec.
How we laughed at our E3
joke that is Killzone two.
Now this market data
makes a beautiful line
and it's heading downwards
could we be bankrupt this time?
We're glad we're getting burned
Think of all the things we've learned
about 'FUD' and distorting
the truth.

Go ahead and leave us.
Our console prefers to stay on the shelf
Maybe you'll find something else
to play with.
Wii or three-sixty?
THAT WAS A JOKE, oh wait, too late...
Anyway, the cell is great
And so is 4D gaming.
Look at us still lying
Is that all we can do?
When we look out there,
Unsold units block our view.
We have got new fibs to concoct
a big brand to be undone
for the stupid who
still buy the lie.

The no multiple SKUs lie.

The backwards compatibility lie.

We're in third place thanks to our lies.

While we're dying we'll still be pushing the lie.

And when we're sold off we'll still tell the lie.

PS3 lies.

The Witcher. Greatest RPG to date?

2007-10-28T23:23:00.000Z

I'm not one to rave but when your as jaded as me it takes something special to 'unjade' me.( yes I just made that word up ). The Witcher, is that thing.

I'll be honest, I'd barely heard of it and had completly forgotten about it, as it just came across as another RPG that supposedly did it all. Gothic 3 was a classic example of a RPG hyped to death and ending up a pile of shite.

Then the posts began to appear and the people were happy. Very happy, so I ended up purchasing it and...

I'll make it simple. The Witcher is Balders Gate in 3D and some.

I'd say more but that'll take me away from the game. Just buy it.

10/10 !

P.S We got it before the Americans. :p

Yahtzee reviews something funny etc...

2007-10-24T17:05:00.000+01:00

As everyone else is selling out by posting links to witty stuff instead of making it themselves, I thought I'd follow suit. No sense bucking a trend when it's easy? Right?

I don't give two shits about the Wii, and by the sounds of it neither does he. Still, it's good for a laugh until Mass Effect hits.

Oh btw, PGR4 rules; it would probably have it own monarchy in Labdonia if not for the annoyingly wooly controls (read: stupidly large dead zone) which can't be adjusted.

Bioware MMO to be based in KOTOR universe?

2007-10-22T23:21:00.000+01:00

From some interweb site....

A source close to BioWare confirmed to us today that the studio’s upcoming untitled massively-multiplayer online RPG will be centered around the Star Wars universe, specifically that of Knights of the Old Republic, which the developer released in 2003. The game garnered critical acclaim and spawned a less-popular sequel, released by Obsidian two years later.

The game is being developed by the company’s Austin studio, formed in 2006 and headed by BioWare Creative Director James Ohlen, whose past credits include the first KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur Gate’s I and II.

This is not the first Star Wars-related MMORPG: Star Wars Galaxies debuted in the summer of 2003, followed by several expansions. It was generally well-received by fans and critics, but subscriber numbers plunged and never recovered after a controversial gameplay update in 2005. It’s estimated that the game now has fewer than 100,000 subscribers and less than 20,000 active players.

It’s currently unknown whether or not EA, which acquired BioWare last week, will act as publisher for this title, or if the studio had a previous arrangement with another publisher.

Expect the game sometime in 2009.

Published by EA? Ewwwww.

Zero Punctuation: The Orange Box watch!

2007-10-17T21:31:00.000+01:00

It must be Wednesday.

Spot on as always but Portal's had quite an effect on Yahtzee.

Half Life 2 Manchester United 0

The iceing on the cake!

2007-10-14T23:54:00.000+01:00

Just had to get a cake reference in there ;) Orange box, easily one of the best releases of the last few years is about to be topped!

It's a magazine scan so I'm not allowed to post it but yeah Game Informer gave it 9.75.

Graphics:
Every second of gameplay offers the visual quality you have come to expect from Final Fantasy cutscenes.

Entertainment:
An expansive quest (18 to 30 hours) that toys with your emotions and keeps you engaged.

Replay Value: High

Concept: One of the greatest science fiction stories ever told, and a new benchmark for video game storytelling.

Just wrote those 3 things down, thought they was the most important, they also said the voice acting was amazing and that the soundtrack is one of the most memorable and unique soundtracks in gaming.

Mass Effect is almost here.

Gabe Newell Slags The PS3

2007-10-12T13:23:00.000+01:00

Stuffed with cash and now feeling somewhat more secure after the release of Orange Box, Gabe Newell has launched a scathing attack on the shiny black next-gen turkey dubbed the PS3, calling it "a waste of everybody's time." My hero.

Read it and weep [tears of laughter], not that anyone would intentionally buy one of these overpriced, underpowered and now neutered pieces of shit.

Personally, I don't care if it's true, I just like seeing Sony taking a beating for all the bullshit it originally came out with. Here's hoping it'll stay a distant 3rd place forever.

Gareth Gobulcoque....

2007-10-10T23:01:00.000+01:00

Yahtzee does Tabula Rasa. As usual, spot on.

Zero Punctuation: Halo 3

2007-10-05T11:50:00.000+01:00

This is by far the best game review i've ever seen :)

credit to Yahtzee at the escapist

I have to say I found Halo3's single player to be very average for a game that got so many perfect scores.

Yaarr!

2007-10-02T23:31:00.000+01:00

'On Monday, October 1st, Flying Lab Software and Sony Online Entertainment will be kicking off a Beta Stress Test event that will invite File Planet subscription holders to temporarily participate in the Pirates of the Burning Sea beta test. We expect File Planet stress test accounts to go live on the afternoon of Thursday, October 4th and expire at midnight on Sunday, October 7th, Pacific Standard Time. Why a Stress Test?This stress test is a crucial phase in the development of our server infrastructure, and the temporary addition of File Planet subscriber accounts will provide us with the data we need to evaluate and adjust the stability and scalability of our networks. More information will be shared as it becomes available.Best,Aether'

http://www.burningsea.com/page/news/article&article_id=10427

Oh for a new shiney mmo.

Next up.. PGR4.

2007-10-01T23:47:00.000+01:00

Another major title about to hit and this time they've added road kill.

9/10 from eurogamer.

'As a swansong for Activision-bound Bizarre Creations, it's more than we could have wished for, and a daunting prospect for whichever developer Microsoft asks to follow it. '

Halo: The Future of Gaming

2007-09-25T09:23:00.000+01:00

With Halo3's release loadingreadyrun give us a look into the future

Shoot the Doctor!

2007-09-23T18:39:00.000+01:00

Penny Arcade have a vital tip for anyone playing TF2

Halo 3 Advert - Consolevania

2007-09-14T14:45:00.000+01:00

The recent Halo3 teaser has been altered to better reflect Halo's Live expearence.

Looks Easy To Me

2007-09-13T00:00:00.001+01:00

That's right, it's no wonder Toekiller has so much time on his hands when it comes to reminding people about various roof related failures in the past, as he's got the easiest job in the world.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Demo Released

2007-09-12T12:51:00.000+01:00

It’s pretty good, but alas it isn’t Tribes 4 although i hear there is a tribes mod in development for it (fingers crossed).

There’s a list of mirrors here.

On a side note which genius decided to release the full version of the game the same week at Halo3?

Milestone of PC Gaming Ahead

2007-09-12T09:13:00.000+01:00

Did I say Milestone? I meant tombstone.

Orange Box is now available on Steam for pre-order, the benefit being that you get early access to Team Fortress 2 and a couple of quid off the asking price. Oh, and a PopCap trial game thrown in, possibly to punish you for keeping the PC scene alive this long. Yes, that does make me a hypocrite as I've just bought something - just consider it as flowers on the coffin.

So yeah, make the most of quite possibly the last decent game(s) on the PC, ever. Just tech demos and thinly disguised ploys to get you purchasing PC hardware upgrades after this.

Still, it's not all doom and gloom, at least Steam now accepts PayPal so you don't have to faff around with their Credit Card system. A mechanism whose use in the past has elicited terms between 'slightly picky' and 'possibly the worst piece of coding ever'.

Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari Porno!

2007-08-27T15:12:00.000+01:00

The Nerds back and this time is reviewing porn for the Atari 2600.

Bioshock Update,,,,

2007-08-17T06:34:00.000+01:00

Now available on Steam.

IGN gave Bioshock its highest ever 360 rating.

9.7!

BL Lives!

2007-08-12T08:53:00.000+01:00

If anything is likely to save PC gaming, it's Steam. So with the advent of their new "community" feature I procured our highly exclusive and somewhat infamous Tribe name: BloodLust

Send your steam ID to me (via MSN or IRC), and then look forward to your inbox filling up with hate mail from random peons regarding how you 'stole' their clan name. Good times. Who knows, if they ever release another decent game on the PC we might roll out the BL machine again!

Fear the Mighty Poodle of doom!

Age of Conan Delayed until 2008!

2007-08-10T13:47:00.000+01:00

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=81160

"After careful consideration, and analysis of recent Beta feedback, we believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners,"

Or in other words, "Our beta testers have advised us it's shite"

Soundwave: The Touch

2007-08-09T16:14:00.000+01:00

Well speaking of Transformers, here's what happened to poor Soundwave after being dropped from the film.

Fucking iPod's

It's a lot better than Trashformers [sic]

2007-08-07T11:10:00.000+01:00

I would quote it, but that would just spoil it. Quality.

Magic the Gathering meets EverQuest 2?

2007-08-06T10:06:00.000+01:00

In a suitably bizarre turn of events, SoE has decided to add a Collectible Card Game into their EverQuest franchise. Go here for confirmation as you no doubt can't believe it either. To be fair, the card game in Vanguard (called Diplomacy) was actually pretty good, but it worked - in much the same way as the rest of the game didn't - by virtue of being tightly integrated into the gameplay system.

I'll admit, I'm curious to see if it's any good. The only downside to Diplomacy was that it was somewhat simplistic. Am I curious enough to resubscribe? We'll have to see.

PS: I looked up 'Contributor', and the definition is: playing a part in bringing something about.
/me looks at the names on the right...

Bioshock. 24th August.

2007-07-30T23:51:00.000+01:00

The spiritual successor to the System Shock games is almost here and the magazine reviews have started to roll in...

OXM - 10/10 - Console mag so pinch of salt.
PC Gamer 95% - Then again they gave HL2 94%.

I'm almost excited.

The Fallout Fall Out

2007-07-28T12:55:00.000+01:00

What with the recent trailer for Fallout 3, I thought it would be prudent to find out what all the original fuss was about, as for some reason I'd managed to miss Fallout and its sequels. Here, for your amusement, are my findings.

AI. Shockingly bad, will happily shoot you in the back repeatedly. Not funny when they have a gun, even less funny when they have a rocket launcher. Then, unhappy with their inability to cause actual bodily harm when out of combat, will block doorways and scenery bottlenecks in an attempt to inflict mental damage instead.
Inventory management. Selling up is a bartering process, where the vendor has a limited money pool. This forces you to sell up to their limit, exit the dialogue, and start again as their money pool mysteriously replenishes on exit. The developers, obviously worried that this part wasn't infuriating enough, added slow scrolling menu transitions to really heighten the emotion.
Level design. Clowntastic in a word. Placing useful objects that are then hidden from view by the isometric perspective, meaning you have to hug the camera obscured parts of a level to explore it all. I just can't tell you how much fun that is.
Scripting. Fragile, will break if you happen to breathe during a disk access. I dread to think what it was like before the patch!
Utterly pointless weapons. The best ones are all large area of effect jobs, and guess what? That's right, all your numpty party members are still using spoons and curling tongs - apart from the dog, who spends most of the game going BANG instead of Woof. No really, you can't choose what weapon party members use in combat. The only real control you have is deciding whether they should initiate friendly fire from close or long range.

Overall, this is a clear case of nostalgia colouring reality, as no doubt the game was good - possibly even revolutionary - at the time, but things have moved on. A lot. Avoid it if you have never got round to playing it, and don't go back if you have.

I may attempt Fallout 2 at some point, simply because I enjoy shouting at my monitor.

Next time your thinking about hitting that top level in your favourite online game....

2007-07-21T08:53:00.000+01:00

Think again.

Obviously the gang hadn't been watching 24 for torture tips. The stripped naked to a chair with a hole in it and then having your testicles bitch slapped, would have worked in seconds.

Still props to the little nutter for standing up to them. You have a gun and want my password? It's....

About time someone did it...

2007-07-20T23:02:00.000+01:00

and by that, I mean this:

Additionally, through the innovative Hall of Monuments, Guild Wars: Eye of the North creates a path for players to carry the legacy of their characters into the upcoming Guild Wars 2. The Hall of Monuments will allow players to preserve their accomplishments and titles from Guild Wars, Factions, and Nightfall, which can then be claimed in Guild Wars 2.

Granted, Guild Wars isn't a levelling treadmill like other MMOs, but this certainly sounds like a step in the right direction to me.

Source: Guild Wars - Eye of the North newsletter

Trant dreaming about Rock Band

2007-07-20T00:28:00.001+01:00

Harmonix are taking suggestions for songs to feature in Rock Band, a game certain to top the charts and awards.

Taking things further here is my dream list considering what my friends and I would enjoy playing given the four instruments, some variety and no massive solos.

1. Opening Licks

The Passenger - Iggy Pop
I Predict a Riot - Kasier Chiefs
Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi
Wonderwall - Oasis
All Right Now - Free

2. Amp-Warmers

Money For Nothing - Dire Straights
Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams
Paradise City - Guns 'n Roses
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
It's Been Awhile - Staind

3. String-Snappers

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Going Down/Love in an Elevator - Aerosmith
Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols
Holy Water - Bad Company

4. Thrash and Burn

Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Darts of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
Inside - Stiltskin
Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne

5. Return of the Shred

Poison - Alice Cooper
All The Small Things - Blink-182
Walk This Way - Run DMC
Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six
In The End - Linkin Park

Instead I bet they'd stick to the 10% great, 90% filler formula loved by the music industry but hey, a gamer can dream right?

Goodbye to one of the milestones of gaming..

2007-07-19T23:37:00.000+01:00

*Sniff*

"Yes I meant to mine the enemy flag, yes It was meant for an enemy. It wasn't my fault you got to it first" Toekiller to Lab after getting bored at 26-0 in defense and deciding to go on the offensive.

"I'll hold the roof" Labatyd. 30 seconds later bits of him where falling from the roof after he caught a mortar round in his teeth.

"You cheating scumbags" Banana Republic to Oddbod / Bloodlust for nicking their flag and making sure it never got returned by flying around in a scout.

"Trant. Stand there and hold this" Det pack catcher extraordinaire.

And so many more...

New Logo's.......

2007-07-19T23:08:00.001+01:00

Microsoft continues to hit head against very large brick wall.

2007-07-19T22:45:00.000+01:00

Microsoft's Shane Kim...

"I still am a believer in our ability to do well in Japan. We're not going to win in Japan. We know that. That was never our goal, this generation, to win in Japan. We can win this generation without winning Japan. But we can do well in Japan. Now that's going to take a long time."

What!?

Just cut your losses and concentrate on a market that buys your shit ffs. Even France has bought more broken 360's than the japs. Then again, they didn't nuke France. Yet.

Crysis! Crysis Delayed!

2007-07-19T22:01:00.000+01:00

Taken from the webnet somewhere, someone said...

A person from http://www.i4u.com/ spoke to a Crytek employee at E3. That employee told that Crysis may have some problems with Vista, under some hardware configurations, so they have towait for release of new GPU drivers to work with them on game. "Vista is not stable in some cases, connected with games, under some hardware configurations"-he said.That person, from http://www.i4u.com/, tells us that there are problems withSLI 8800 Ultra under Vista: games unload after some time of playing.Crytek has been waiting for more stable Vista GPU drivers, thats why game releaseis being delayed (the same about MULTIPLAYER BETA).

I'd slag off thier spelling and grammer but pot, kettle black etc. ;)

Who the fuck has two 8800 ultra's ?! 4 people thats who.Screw those rich fucks. Release now and torment the bastards.

One of the all time great FPS's gets a sequel.

2007-07-19T18:45:00.000+01:00

Hell, even Lab managed to get through it.

Have you guessed yet?

Halo 3 - No Co-Op at launch?

2007-07-19T08:14:00.000+01:00

No excuses. We want it now!

"We're not dumb. We know that people want it and we're trying to make it happen. I think the biggest problem for us for online co-op is that we have a situation where you can be in a Warthog with five troops, almost a mile away from the other player. That's a significant challenge. And there's lots of design things you could do to prevent that from happening, but they would make it not feel like Halo anymore. If we can make it happen in a way that works well, we will — and if it works badly, we won't."

Says Bungie's Frankie.

I Am Murloc - L70ETC

2007-07-18T10:04:00.000+01:00

Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, is a band made up of Blizzard employees. Blizzard just released their latest video in time for BlizzCon.

I AM MORE THEN A FISH! I AM MORE THEN A MAN!

News: Peter Moore Resigns

2007-07-17T21:43:00.000+01:00

Blimey didn’t see this coming.

"Moore will be replaced by Don Mattrick, a former president of EA and current external adviser for Microsoft, who will now lead the Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft. While the official release says that Moore 'has decided to move his family back to the Bay Area for personal reasons' "

Full story Kotaku

Back from the Dead?

2007-07-17T14:51:00.000+01:00

Those of you with a fascination for miscellaneous facts will be interested to know that the Internet has been free of 'Jadedness' for just over a year. I am of course, still alive, and you'll probably remember me as the only member of the JG staff that didn't have the typing skills and grammar of a shaved ape.

I think I'm going to like 'blogging', which really is the literary form of wanking. Go figure.

Anyway, here we are, back again. Sony still lies like they're all on crack and gets away with it - although judging by their sales figures you have to wonder if they are still getting away with it. The PC scene is dead as ever, with about one decent title a year, though I'm struggling to remember the last one. Even my beloved 360 is going through a dry period. Bah, why even bother gaming anymore? - go here instead: http://puppywar.com/ (because cats suck)

The next big MMO.

2007-07-16T00:18:00.000+01:00

Being oldish and jaded is not good. The only real hope to rekindle the old gaming magic, is for total memory loss. There may be a silver lining to dementia after all ;) I'm not quite there yet though and in a probable futile attempt, have been looking toward an MMO to give me a good month of gaming ( stunning achievement these days ) and stave off any urge I might have to have my memory wiped.

So what's piqued my interest?

Pirates of the Burning Sea. Ships! Cannons! Whores! How can it fail? Not to be confused with the no doubt horrific Pirates of the Caribbean.

Age of Conan. The first to the table with DX10. Looking to introduce more interactive combat ( gibbing / Limbs off included! ) and player run towns.

Tabula Rasa. From the man who brought Ultima to the world, comes a scifi epic. Currently some of us on beta. All I'll say is, it shows promise but needs a lot of work.

Warhammer. Orcs and axes. The next WOW?

Those are my big four. Shed loads in development though. Can one or two surprise the favourites? Lets hope so. For my memories sake at least.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Trailer

2007-07-15T15:56:00.000+01:00

Ive always enjoyed the metal gear series although i always thought they were a little heavy on dialogue and cut scenes. Doesn’t look much is going to change.

1st Post good to be back :)

Everquest 2...

2007-07-15T10:47:00.001+01:00

Well it used to be like this.....

Now things are much more sedate, huge amounts of content added, still graphically top of the pile, drips atmosphere and leveling is so much quicker.

For me it's up there with WOW as the best MMO out there. It took a while but I defiantly recommend going back if you haven't tried it in a while.

Almost missed a gem....

2007-07-15T10:37:00.000+01:00

It almost passed me by but after it kept coming up in various Darkness threads, I finally laid my hands on and played through Chronicles Of Riddick - Escape from Butchers Bay.

Well it lived up to its reputation is all I can really say. Graphics were quite good on the PC, reminded me a lot of Doom3, mixed up game play styles, sneaking, running, gunning and puzzles wrapped in one cool package with Vin Diseal's voice oozing atmosphere. Not only that but the storyline is actually worth paying attention to and is set before Pitch Black and fills in a few holes.

7 / 10 ( For a jaded gamer that's a very good score )

Defiantly going to pick up the Darkness after playing this.