wholehole

Never really spent much time on that site so I can't say whether they're a trustworthy source or not. There's never smoke without fire though, especially since EA don't seem to be able to get their story straight internally. I daresay we'll hear more about it further down the line.

I think a lot of this comes from the F2P model becoming so popular in recent months and publishers desperately trying to fit it into their business models. There's a very thin line between stretching out content whilst still making it worthwhile to spend the time playing and just paying for certain content outright. Games like Warframe and Hawken seem to have pretty much nailed it, whereas EA are royally fucking it up with their misguided fumblings adding this style of content to full priced games as a "feature". It's not just publishers that need to get used to this, we need to start thinking differently about it as well. As DC said, if DS3 was £20 (and the microtransactions were a little more worthwhile), we'd be much more likely to want to spend a bit more, considering we'd have usually paid up to £40. That's around £20 of content we could choose to purchase, effectively customising the game.

Played a few hours and it's been very, very good. It's very much another game that's taken more than a few pages from Uncharted's playbook, except it switches a wise-cracking protagonist for someone much more vulnerable and insecure. Well, at least to start with anyway. I've always loved the Tomb Raider series, the original TR was the first ever game I bought for the PS1 and I played it to death, but the series was massively in need of a complete reboot. They've done a fantastic job with this game and the character. Lara is almost unrecognisable from her hotpants wearing, confident predecessor. I say almost as they decided to stick with her two most distinguishing features for some reason. Cans . The sections where you squeeze through a gap or are only able to progress forwards are probably the most elegant way of disguising a load screen I can think of. It's totally seamless and in some case even adds to the experience by allowing Lara time to express how she's feeling.The same goes for the logs she records at some of the base camps, only a few lines of dialogue, but it adds so much. Each area seems to have a discreet sub-objective like smash 10 lanterns or burn 5 banners, and they only activate once you hit the first thing, you're not notified about it otherwise. I can see myself spending a chunk of time completing these as well as picking up all the collectables dotted around. I tried turning on the new TressFX hair technology but it looks a bit weird tbh. It also hits the framerate pretty hard in certain situations. It's a cool idea as game hair usually looks pretty rubbish, but it definitely needs tweaking a bit before making it standard.

I always look forward to Wednesdays because of the Bombcast

I heard about this a while back and thought it was a cool explanation for him popping up all over, but I'm not sure there's that much deeper meaning in a game like Max Payne 3. I assume the explanation for him shaving his head was because he snapped and wanted to be all edgy and mental looking. Mission accomplished!

They should withhold that award until HL3 and Portal 3 are officially announced. Very interested to see how this all pans out. There's alot riding on it. If it's a failure with Valve behind it, it doesn't give much hope for other companies to try the same thing. I really hope it does well though and is able to shake up the next gen consoles a bit.

That bow they made looks fucking cool. Special Edition bonus maybe??

Maybe Netflix could set up a You've Been Framed style scheme where they pay out £250 for every indie film they receive. YouTube or Vimeo is probably an indie's best bet at this point, then just parp it round all the blogs and hope the coverage picks up.

I had a load of ration seals piling up so I bought one the mid-level packs with them. I can't see anyone needing to buy one to progress though as resources are plentiful if you deploy your bots every once in a while. The supercharged frames you also get in the packs aren't a massive improvement over the standard ones, it wouldn't really make the game any easier through using them.

So I guess we can view this as an announcement of the next game in a roundabout way. Still, DOWN WITH EA! They're the worst etc.

It's a nice idea and good gesture to Indie filmmakers, but I don't think a lot of people would be willing to drop £10+ on an unknown film they haven't seen advertised anywhere else. I don't actually know of anyone that regularly rents films via their Xbox if I think about it. It's mostly all Netflix and Lovefilm.

I wonder if EA will ever realise that games never do well when they stick their oar in too much. If they just left the developers to follow their original vision and carry it out without the constant prodding and poking they'd have far more sales on their hands.

Super House of Dead Ninjas - Finished on normal, the game promised more for finishing it on Hard. Am trying, is tough. Dead Space 3 Antichamber DmC The Cave Bayonetta Dead Space - Hard - One Gun Kentucky Route Zero Act 1

Dead Space 3 - Good game overall, not sure the changes and additions made the game any better in the end though. Was planning on going through on some of the NG+ modes but don't think I can stomach it right now. The end sections left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Antichamber DmC The Cave Bayonetta Dead Space - Hard - One Gun Kentucky Route Zero Act 1

I'm interested to find out how they're going to continue the story in the "real" world as AC3 didn't really give a very good resolution to those events. I can see them focusing alot more on the naval battles considering the highest praise from the previous game was for those sections. Not sure that's enough to regain interest in it though. I still enjoy the series to a certain degree, even if AC3 wasn't a high point, but they could do with trying something different with the series at this point.

Bought this on a whim last week and bought a cheap electric guitar on Saturday. I've always wanted to play the guitar (or any instrument really) and I've tried learning a few times in the past but I've never stuck with it. Honestly, I doubt this time will be any different but whatever, I'll have fun with it whilst I'm interested. Played a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday and it feels like a better learning experience just through being able to play along to the full song without being penalised for making mistakes. I like how it constantly adjusts the phrase level and throws an extra note or two into the mix, it feels like you're making real progress when you hit everything. The scoring aspect is also a good indicator of how well you're progressing. Having loads of fun with it so far even if my fingers are incredibly sore. I'll play through the pain though and stick with it for the foreseeable future. If anything it'll give me a good headstart if I decide to get more serious about playing.

Didn't play much at all last week. Only a few hours on Dead Space 3 (really just need to get this finished now), spent a few hours revengeancing on MGR, and a few on Rocksmith over the weekend. Tried to play some Ni No Kuni yesterday but had to stop as I kept nodding off like some weird narcoleptic. Not sure if that's the game's fault or me just being tired. I suspect a bit of both as the game has slowed considerably after being tasked with a Zelda style multi-piece fetch quest

Still really want to get my hands on this but I'm a little disappointed with the "puzzles" that are dotted around. Coming from Blow, I was expecting something a bit more tangible within the world to solve rather than ever more elaborate mazes. The world you're in is going to have to be very interesting indeed to take some of the focus off the fact you're doing the same thing over and over.

I'll have to borrow my mate's 3DS so I can play this. Looking forward to the console sequel more but still want to get this, won't be worth buying another 3DS over though.

Cheers Hinn

That action figure is horrific. Is it supposed to be Baird??

I spent a lot of time looking through it all whilst playing the beta a couple of weeks ago. It's massive but a bit boring, lots of minor increases to X and Y but very few major points to hit. I liked the idea of being able to spec into other areas though. The game itself is pretty cool, very similar to Titan Quest.

Was a bit shocked when I read about this. Had to end sometime I suppose but I'd kind of gotten used to the regularity of it all. Very interested to see what they're up to next, I always enjoy a bit of rhythm action.

Not finding Impossible too tough now I've upgraded my HP and armour to max. The first third or so was a bit hairy though. Got stacks and stacks of small and medium health packs in the bank and tons of scrap metal keeping my ammo supplies topped off. Also, my new favourite weapon. Anchored Bolas gun with a Force Gun underneath and flame glaze on the ammo. One shot from the Force Gun to set them on fire and knock them down, then chuck a bolas where they fall. It's a beast, just mashes everything up, especially if you can gather a few enemies up and have them fall in the same place. As a bonus the bolas explodes once it's done which means you don't have to stomp everything after the fight is over.

Bit of a clanger, just noticed Isaac's footprints in the snow are the wrong way around. Looks really silly if you backpeddle whilst looking down. Doh