thanks for the suggestion quakis, that looks up my alley 

<@rebb> hm wonder if this works http://bf3blog.com/forum/topic/how-to-make-origin-stay-away-from-the-rest-of-your-computer 

I emailed before and didn't get a reply. I'm just checking before I leave feedback. This is what was advertised beneath the product:

1 of: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Limited Edition (PC DVD) (New)
Seller note: EXPRESS DELIVERY IN 48 HOURS , SAME DAY SHIPPING GUARANTEE ( � less )

I ordered the item on 21st October. I got a dispatch email on 26th October - not same day shipping.

At the time of emailing (29th October) the item still hasn't arrived - not 48 hour delivery.

I've had friends send me parcels from London and arrive the next morning. So I'm not sure why this delivery has taken so long.

FUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuUCK. 

I know some people preferred EP 1, but I thought it was exceptional. Set pieces like the opening level when the portal causes the train/bridge to collapse were amazing! Some very nice fights too.

Valve have a very good grasp on what makes FPSs tick IMHO. 

Is pretty awesome!

It boils down to a tower defence game mixed with 3d person action combat. There are 2 phases to the gameplay, you start a wave in build mode and can setup defences and upgrade your towers using mana as a currency (which is spawned in finite amounts from chests and can also be picked up from killed enemies). Then once you are happy with your setup you start the combat phase where trains of mobs try to reach various nodes on the map and destroy the crystals located there. In the combat phase you still have complete control of your character and can attack enemies and repair/upgrade and place new towers as you gain mana.

There are 4 classes all with different towers and attacks/special abilities. They combo together really nicely and the game supports up to 4 players at the same time.

It also gets brutally difficult on the harder game modes, there is a lot of strategy involved in setting up a good defence and protecting your crystals. It's all around well made fun, theres a demo available on steam so check it out :D 

I figured you guys here would get a kick out of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZtBCpo0eU

(I couldn't find a better thread to post this in so I'm sorry that it's off-topic) 

Well, while the trailer doesn't really get me pumped up for a new GTA (maybe I'm jaded) it looks a lot more enjoyable than GTA4.

http://kotaku.com/5855541/grand-theft-auto-vs-first-official-trailer

Seems pretty colorful, similar to Vice City/San Andreas, which I enjoy more than the drab GTA 4. 

Awesome, totally obvious, but still funny, I like the second part. 

I've never finished one of those games, tbh, but they are super fun. Probably my favourite game to borrow from a friend and play when really fucked up. 

That quake video is hilarious :D And all so true. 

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/platoon/2832655241053871886/

if you have the game, apply and I'll accept all you guys :)

Logo is a bit lol, if anyone can come up with something better feel free! 

That quake video is rather sad 

SAS: Secure Tomorrow is the first City Interactive title I've decided to try, having received mixed (but not bad) reviews from Gamespot and IGN. Not sure what game they were playing, but SAS was barely worth the $10 I paid for it.

The game is so short you'll be done in under 3 hours. You start in a prison, followed by a building complex then a snowy base in Greenland. In most games, that would be three levels but City Interactive spreads it out across 10 levels. It's basically just F.E.A.R. inspired room-corridor-room design. Even the outdoor snow levels are just a series of medium sized outdoor areas connected by snowy passageways (corridors). There's no great detail, no setpieces whatsover or even mildly interesting environment backgrounds. Compared to other 2008 games, SAS will be a big let-down, as it looks about as good as games released five years ago. In fact if this was released in 2003/2004 it would have been quite popular, apart from the length.

The engine is a little better than the art, being the Jupiter EX from Lithtech that powered F.E.A.R. and Condemned. But by 2008 this engine is a few years old and hasn't aged well.

Ultimately if you liked the look of F.E.A.R., then SAS is more of the same. Just a little worse.

The gameplay has you fighting terrorists with two comrades. Unfortunately they are a beefy source of frustration, constantly getting in your way. They run into rooms gung hoe because they're invicible, but they're also really bad shots and often will just stand around not shooting and often facing towards you while there's enemies RIGHT BEHIND THEM. Perhaps it's a good thing, otherwise they'd complete the entire game for you.

You get some variety with plenty of weapons, although they're all very similar machine guns, but all fairly fun. The enemies have mixed AI, sometimes retreating to cover. But overall it's quite an easy game. I probably only died a few times on medium difficulty, mostly due to being reckless. Sometimes you need to be careful and lean around corners using cover, while you can also run into a room blasting. It's the kind of gameplay I enjoy.

So overall, below average design and extremely short length, but it's generally kind of fun. If you can find it for under $10 and have absolutely nothing else to play, then it's perhaps worth a few hours of your time.

Rating: 4.5/10 

Nice little stealth platformer, fun music and graphics as well, and free!
http://www.stealthbastard.com/#about 

http://www.electricescape.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/conflict-deniedops.php

6.0/10.

Now that I'm up to 2008 (saving 2007s Bioshock and COD4 for later) I'm reviewing some more less popular and obscure stuff. Next up will probably be The Precursors. 

Dedicated servers that might as well not exist because you can't gain any exp/unlocks when playing on them (you have to use P2P matchmaking)?

Locked down fov 65? In an FPS? On PC? Is this a joke? 

They probably have a re-hashed version of the COD3 engine still. Which I thought was idTech4, (remember this from when CODBLOPS came out) but apparently it stems from idTech 3 (!).

Get with the now, COD. But yeah, that aside - 65?!?!?! That's like looking at life through a tiny hole in a box that you wear on your head. 

To be fair, the dedicated servers allow you to play how you want. Once you unlock everything, who cares? You can still play with friends or play on a server with regular people like you can in TF2.

And the fov doesn't need to be that wide, the maps are fucking tiny. Especially after playing BF3, in which Caspian Border could probably fit all the MW3 maps inside of it.

Now I'm not trying to defend it, but I don't think those are terribly important issues. 

You keep buying it, they keep making it. 

City Interactive is a budget shooter warehouse of a developer. Their 2008 lineup includes Operation Thunderstorm, SAS: Secure Tomorrow, Battlestrike: Force Of Resistance, Code of Honor 2, Sniper - Art of Victory and The Royal Marines Commando. I've already reviewed SAS and I'll be playing Royal Marines next. The others I'm skipping; the quality is variable.

Operation Thunderstorm started badly. To sum it up in one sentence and punchline, this game would have been good... if it was RELEASED IN THE 1990's! Although as the game progressed (quickly) some of the levels get better than the first couple. But the graphics here aren't great. As crappy as SAS looked with it's 2004 F.E.A.R. engine, this game is actually a little worse, although it's using the same engine. It's cramped, nothing but endless corridors and small winding rooms and at times is quite maze-like, saved only by it's small on-screen map and forward arrow highlight where to go.

But ignoring the bad graphics, I actually had a lot of fun in this game. The enemies are all the same, even the two bosses appear to be just normal enemies with a different skin. They go down quick. Once you get a few good guns and start walking around with your scope out, it's a blast. A great, old skool shooter feel with no story, just picking off enemies over and over.

You can't expect perfection with a game that's only 2gb installed, and it's over in well under three hours. City Interactive should probably just give this game out for free now as a digital download to garner attention for their future titles, but if you can find a copy to download then it's probably more fun than wasting two hours watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster. It's not really worth any money though.

Rating: 4.5/10 

I tried hard to get The Precursors, but all online versions seem to be the same infected install that just brings up a black screen and nothing else. Shame, it looked like it had potential. Anyone got the precusors.exe file? That's the one that seems to be infected. 

Might have been mentioned already. You all know The Humble Bundle, but there's also Indie Royale, another place for cheap indie game bundles that offers a new pack every fortnight. 

No interest in the game but skimmed through this and it seemed vaguely interesting

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/nov/10/modern-warfare-3-internet-hatred 

The Indie Royale pack and was underwhelmed. The Ben there Dan that series is good if you hadn't played it and night sky is interesting, but the others kind of meh.

That's the problem with looking out for new games all the time, when these bundles come out you've already played their best games ad infinitum.

Voxatron by the way lacks a game design. Nice engine. 

Gaming press realises people don't like to be fed juicy wholesome chuds?

Whinging about something being terrible is a hobby for many repressed internetters though.