Likewise the not-particularly-well-conceived structure of skills and abilities ends up collapsing in on itself...there isn't really any such thing as balance in this game

That's all very well put. Oblivion is one of those games where you'll get to a certain point, in both familiarity with the game and character development, and you have to make a decision: "Do I want to play the game "as intended" or do I want to bust it all to hell and become completely unstoppable?" (And, hell, that applies to Morrowind, and I believe Daggerfall and Arena too, from what I remember.)(I'm old.)

In a way, those exploits can give the games even more mileage, and offer a lot of sandbox play after you've made your way through it in a more normal manner. Or perhaps I'm just a bit too much of a Bethsoft fanboy. 

Yeah, I'm pretty weak, I stopped playing Oblivion the day my gear gave me full 100% damage reflection, I could have just changed gear, but whatever. I rushed through the main story quests and stopped playing. That was after more than 100 hours of play time though.

Gahd I hope the new Fallout is good. 

that was great, the whole thing just clicked and was well made, entertaining and varied enough in gameplay and graphics throughout the whole game.

The bits where you play kong are enormous fun, they got the controls right, the camera right and made it not too difficult so that you can just enjoy those parts rather than worrying about how to jump to the next ledge. 

That doesn't make you that old, I'm 23 and I played Arena more than any of the other games in the series. I probably made the least progress in the game narrative in that too.

Arena is amazing though, I don't think any of the other games give you the same feeling of unsafety when you're in a dungeon somewhere miles from a town, and the feeling of when you finally get back to town but it's night so there are monsters roaming the streets which always sneak up on you, so you have to find an Inn which is open to spend the night.

I don't want to ramble on, but the more I think about it, i think I'm in love with the safe/unsafe game dynamic... trying to find protection and safety is such a good motivating factor. In fact, I've had a load of ideas for a game that would build off that, maybe one day I'll actually work on putting something together. 

Having played Arena doesn't make me that old, true, but I feel that way sometimes. :)

I hear what you're saying about the safety thing. I think of it more as built-in user-friendliness. Game designers used to get away with being serious assholes, and gamers enjoyed it, in a somewhat masochistic way. Many games these days are more immediately user-friendly and don't have as steep of a learning curve. I blame consoles and a larger, more mainstream audience.

Get off my lawn. 

It's the types of games as well, you can't just assume everyone will be able to navigate a 3d world, but a 2D is another (simpler) matter.

Also there's a shitload more money in the industry now, so the higher ups want as broad a selling base as possible - that's why most games are rated M; which really means T. 

[can't assume ] everyone will be able to navigate a 3d world

i loled at that 

a virtual 3d world, and that's the marketing / QA / shitheads at the top view 

starts out fairly sucky, and the attempts at story are even suckier but the main part of the game, fighting through the jungle levels, is pretty good.

Levels and missions in that part still do get a bit repetitive, but overall the gameplay in the jungle bit is very entertaining and noticeably different from your usual WW2 shooter. Dont know what exactly is different in this part, but it feels really good.

All of that is nearly undone in one very horrible flying level towards the end that is terrible in every aspect and is also extremely long to prolong the agony. What were they thinking?? 

<quote>The Orange Box</quote>

All 3 games are fantastic, team fortress 2 is my favourite of the whole bunch and will keep me playing for a long time! Whole package runs great on older pc systems too! 5/5

<quote>Bioshock</quote>

Winner of my personal "best intro sequence I can remember" award and has some great storytelling elements and characters throughout. Plasmids are great fun to use but the weapons could have felt meatier. Needs a fairly recent pc to run at the fullest. 4/5

<quote>Hellgate : London</quote>

Diablo 2 reincarnated, mindless blasting action for all the family, forget the subscription thing it simply is not worth it AT ALL. All the classes are fun to play and very different from each other. Needs a fairly new pc to run at its best. 3.5/5

<quote>Call of duty 4</quote>

(Might have already written about this) Great game! Classic CoD intensity and set pieces, loved the into where you are in the car also. The Chernobyl level shits on Stalker and laughs in its face. Not tried multi player yet... 4/5

<quote>Gears of war (pc)</quote>

I enjoyed the xbox version and the pc version pisses all over it. It looks much better and the mouse/keyboard make it so much easier to play. The new single player chapter is great fun also. Mutiplayer is the same as the xbox version and requires amicro$osft LIVE account. 4/5

<quote>Crysis</quote>

fantastic for the 1st 3 quarters of the game, then slowly but surely falls into mediocrity. Won't go into too much detail as I don't want to ruin the plot, but the jungle fighting gameplay is second to none, the nanosuit is not a gimmick, it is 100% genuinely useful in most situations. Weapon modifying on the fly is fantastic also. Needs a *BEAST* of a pc to run at high settings, I played through at medium / low settings and it looks slightly prettier than farcry. 4/5

<quote>Unreal Tournament 3</quote>

Only got this a day or 2 ago so can't comment with 100% accuracy, but so far it totally rocks! They fixed the UT franchise at last, everything is back to that gritty in your face combat that UT was known for. Most maps make your jaw fall off visually. Warfare mode is great and very fast thanks to the special orb that can instantly capture an enemy node. Menu system blows. Looking forward to playing more over xmas. So far - 4/5 

Thanks for the mini-reviews! :)

p.s. the funniest thing about your b0rked tags is that I read the whole post the first time without even noticing. 

Go play first:
http://www.geocities.jp/z_gundam_tanosii/home/syobon-action.zip

Then search youtube for syobon and watch the video of all the hilarious deaths you won't have patience for experiencing first hand. 

that's some frustrating leveldesign.

i'd hate to play that. =) 

is it just me or is prince of persia 2 (warrior within) much more infuriating than the first??

they've fixed up the combat a bit, but then ruin it with too many mini boss fights, and they've completely fucked the health system and the camera has a lot more problems than before too. 

I just couldn't be bothered to play it for very long, found it too frustrating. 

the nice level design kept me going, but I'm at a ridiculous boss fight at the moment and havent been bothered to try and get past it again. Will try again when I grow back some hair :) 

Better in some ways, worse in others. The most annoying thing was that alot of stuff wasn't finished - storyline inconsitancies in the hidden / second ending, unfinished textures (water sword, a few others), crappy bugs that should have been fixed during QA process (like the occassional bad camera view).

I preferred having the boss fights instead of hordes of the same old enemy relentlessly attacking. Some were great bosses as well - the griffin was cool. I liked the escape sections from that demon thing as well, even though they're probably more annoying than others.

Remember the first one was called frustrating as well.

I just remembered the stupid bits where you have to jump between the ship mast's before they collapse (pillar jumping) that has to be the most annoying bit in the whole game. 

and really if they didnt stuff up the health system (ie you can only get health back generally at a save point), the mini boss fights wouldnt have been bad. 

If HL1 is still on the hard drive this is worth the download. Thankfully works with or without steam.

http://paranoia.level-design.ru/ 

That looks fantastic and Half-Life v 1.1.1.0 or higher! It will look not as nice with 1.1.1.0 I guess but I wouldn't play it otherwise. :) 

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html 

very nice :) 

im stuck on the floor where there's 3 switches and 4 poppables. nothinghappens when i press alll three switches :( 

needs assistance from floor 6. 

That was to be accompanied by a beer, not the red sign.