simple graphics are fine as long as they're done well (i doubt i'll ever stop playing quake) but sports seems to lack an extra level of polish on all fronts visually which (genuinely) detracts from the game since all the characters are animated like weebles and they didn't have to be.

but it is alot of fun to play; so who cares. 

Call of Duty 3: PS3 vs XBOX360 vs Wii, direct graphics comparison:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=15369&type=mov&pl=game regular
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=15368&type=mov&pl=game HD 

http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers/screenshots/wii_composite_vs_component/

Yes, a component cable makes THAT much difference. 

two thumbs up :)

a few niggles, but nothing like the shit that xbox 360 launched with, and thankfully nothing near the price to enjoyment ratio of PS3 at the moment (about 0.1 I'd say, where Wii is about a 1.0 - aside from the Virtual console...). 

they always did, even for regular tv watching like dvds. 

Ii Wiill Bii Buyiing Oneii Whenii Theiii Geiit Morii Avaiiiilabliii 

We had a great plan to play Wii at work today, but then none of us took them in because we all assumed someone else would.

Wii is great fun though, just got started into Zelda today when I get home. 

8430 9643 4347 6210

an pop me a mail to i can add you! 

So I got to the final boss in Gears of War today. Couldn't get past the fucker, oh no, but I reached the bastard and after about 20 attempts to kill him I'm willing to call it a day.

Anyway, here's my review:

...On second thoughts I really can't be arsed to write a review but let me just say that the game looks arse-shatteringly amazing, the levels are filled with colon-rupturingly awesome classical architectural styles, but most importantly it plays super fun.

It's the first truly great 360-exclusive game. The 360 has other great games - it has Oblivion, and it has...err...well ok the 360 has one other great game in the form of Oblivion, but you can also get that for PC.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Gears of War is not perfect however - the control system is flawed - mapping "sprint" and "attach to cover" to the same button was a bit of a mistake - you often find yourself brushing up against, and therefore sticking to, cover objects when you're in actual fact just trying to get the fuck out of dodge, but it doesn't happen often enough to really mar the game.

Side note: "Active Reload" is the best idea ever.

Gah whatever, I'm gonna stop writing and play this some more. 

get the fuck out of dodge

See what he did there. Clever! 

lmao 

After an embarrassing number of attempts, I have at last finally beat the fucker.

Although I would at this stage very much like to personally strangle with my bare hands, the person who designed the final boss battle, I'd just like to say thank you Epic for making the coolest and funnest shooter I've played in many years. I fear that going back to FPS games, without a context cover system, is going to feel somewhat limiting from now on.

Alas the game was far, far too short - understandable when you're making a game of such resplendent visual density, but I was sad when it ended so abruptly.

On the plus side, I now have in my vocabulary a clutch of remarkable new swear words which had never even existed up until the point at which I encountered the final boss battle that inspired me to invent them, so cheers again for that. 

English man walks into a bar in Boston, and proclaimed for all to hear, "ah! such resplendent visual density!"

He was never seen nor heard from again.

Paddy O'Brien, the proprietor, was asked if it had anything to do with 'The Troubles.'

"Oh, no, we forgave the English a long time ago. That had nothing to do with it." 

The final boss truly was the greatest design cock up in recent memory. It exemplified a problem that happened in quite a few places though, which was that a lot of set pieces seemed to have been balanced for co-op play, and were unreasonably hard with only an AI Dom at your side. The game is definitely worth replaying in co-op - in fact for new players, having your first run in co-op won't diminish the experience. Great game overall.

I'm posting this from my Wii by the way. Never again, typing is too slow even with the autocomplete. 

was a bit annoying even in coop, but once you figure out the easy way to do it, it isn't hard. The first time me and my pal beat him, one of us accidentally hit a button and skipped the end cutscene. Luckily we killed him again with no problems whatsoever.

I can imagine that and also the first encounter with the blind charging monster are fucking annoying with an AI buddy though. The charging monster was totally fucking awesome in coop though.

The only bit I didn't like even in coop was the bit where you have to drive the tank and kill krill. That was shit and truely the low point of the game for me. 

since lunsp1? 

How I beat the final boss in single player.

First, there are so many random factors going on in this fight, that blind luck probably accounts for 75% of the success.

How quickly Dom gets killed is a very important factor. With Dom alive he can distract RAAM giving you time to get some clear shots on him whilst there is still plenty of distance between you and him. With a dead Dom, RAAM will be on your arse like a ton of bricks before you know it.

This is the major design fuckup, as Shallow said. AI Dom is stupid and will typically charge straight into RAAM and die very early in the battle, leaving you having to do everything on your own.

Most of my attempts to kill RAAM involved the tactic of staying behind the first low wall, and hitting him with the Torque Bow to disperse the cloud of Kryll, then switching to the sniper rifle and aiming for a headshot. Repeat as necessary. The problem with this method is that constantly switching between the weapons means that half the time you will find yourself holding the Torque Bow when he sends his Kryll horde after you, meaning you miss the chance to headshot him until you switch to the rifle and reload, by which time his Kryll swarm might be back in place before you can get a good shot in.

After many failed attempts I decided to just forget about trying to disperse the Kryll swarm myself, and just concentrate on headshotting him as soon as he sent his Kryll after me. All I had to really worry about was avoiding death when he physically reached the wall I was hiding behind. When he's inside a certain proximity to the wall, staying down and blindfiring grenades or whatever you've got left is your best bet (all I could do was blindfire with the sniper rifle at this point) until he actually breaches your position, at which point it's time to scream your battle cry of choice and run like the fucking wind.

When you have no option left but to expose yourself and make a dash for it, you'd better be praying to all of God, Allah, Buddha, and the six arms of Vishnu, that neither Kryll are airborne and that RAAM isn't currently firing his gun, or you're pretty much instagibbed the minute you poke your head out.

If the wind is blowing in the right direction, and the planets are aligned correctly, you might survive the dash to the next safe cover point. Perhaps you even managed to get to the opposite side of the train - if so, congratulations - RAAM is hopefully now in the distance and you can resume the same tactics that you adopted at the beginning of the fight.

So many things can go wrong along the way - you can easily trip up whilst running due to the aforementioned sprint/stick to cover button clash. Even if you manage to avoid RAAM, at some point you will inevitably find a random Reaver to your flank ploughing your arse with hot lead.

Hilariously, a chokepoint lies immediately in front of the cover point on the far side of the train (where RAAM starts). This makes the mad dash past RAAM much more dangerous from this position as you cannot flank him, and you will often have to literally brush past him on your suicide run.

Fun for all the family! 

one player shoots the bow to get rid of the krill, the other player snipes. The krill never do much damage if you are in the light, so just ignore them. When Raam gets close enough to your cover, both player should run to the other end of the train and start shooting him again. A coupld more shots later and he's dead. 

I am posting in this thread from my wiiiiiii 

but once you figure out the easy way to do it, it isn't hard

LOL sounds like a classic Madden phrase:

"Now now here's a guy who he's big and ugly because he's a monster and and - and you gotta bring the guy down, but once you figure out the easy way to do it, it isn't hard! I like Brett Favre." 

Ok I just completed Call of Duty 3.

God that was dull. I suppose it's a good WWII shooter if you're into that sort of thing (and I haven't played many of those tbh).

I just found that shooting neverending hordes of Germans with either a machinegun or a rifle (and chucking the odd grenade) got OLD really fast.

The story elements/cutscenes were too frequent and too boring. The attempts to add variety to the gameplay with the occasional (obligatory) vehicle driving or turret-operating section were all so obvious and generic that they didn't even register, it was all so unmemorable.

There's a few instances where you will trigger an "interactive cutscene" where for example a German will try to strangle you or stab you to death in a scene similar to that horrible bit in Saving Private Ryan (you know the one), and you have to tap arbitrary buttons on your gamepad in a timely fashion as they flash up onscreen.

This type of mechanic is common to lots of console games, and I think it's always shit. You've reduced the player's involvement in the game to the most minimal of inputs - hitting a button when you're told to - yet what happens on screen is such a complex interaction that the player feels absolutely zero connection between his input and what's actually going on. In essence: it takes you out of the game. Resident Evil 4 did this sort of crap to death, and everyone seemed to love it, everyone apart from me obviously.

Unlike other shooters which can compensate for repetitive gamplay with interesting changes of location, there's only so many types of scenery you can have in a game that tries to realistically portray the battlegrounds of Normandy.

Technically, the game is good - it's quite pretty (definately a step up from CoD2), the orchestral score swells when there's lots of shit going on etc. and the production values are obviously very high, but overall I'm afraid this type of shooter just isn't my cup of tea. 

Wasn't anyone else bored after the first CoD? I only played that, Wolfenstein and Medal of Honour before I decided I didn't want to see another recount of how we kicked those nazi asses good and proper told from the same perspective with the same weapons and totally over-scripted and linear gameplay.

I can deal with another Wolf game because it doesn't claim to be realistic and has the whole supernatural thing mixed in, but another Call of "the glider landing spot is accurate to 1 metre" Duty is something I can't abide.

Unfortunately, I don't think there will be an end to that franchise any time soon.

Oh, and before I post this, Brothers in Arms is another franchise that sucks. They tried to do something interesting, but the spawned a whole fucking franchise based on flanking. That gets old after one level. Mind you, I heard it was just the ps2 version that was shit, so maybe I'm being too hard on it... it WAS shit though.

Vietcong is probably the best wargame I have seen yet in terms of gameplay and a feeling of authenticity. Although not without its problems, I do recommend it to anyone wanting a more interesting FPS war experience (just make sure you get the fist alpha pack and patch it to 1.6). Don't think about getting the sequel though.

H&D2 actually. That was good. Wouldn't mind a sequel to that.

Medal of Honour, Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms. Seriously, all of you just fuck off and die. 

Than likes trying to make ProdigyXL cry. 

I've bothered to play (not counting the awesomeness of Wolfenstein for the reason Than has stated) is Allied Assault, and a fews nights of fucking around on a PS2 with a friend, I played the Pacific version as well. I liked Allied Assault for its variety of missions, but that is as about as much of the genre that I can take.

I would like to see a Splinter Cell style sneaker done using the OSS (Young William Casey Plants a Bug On Hitler!), or a cheekier, less serious sneaker that sort of combines No One Lives Forever with Cryptonomicon would be good fun as well.

The 30's and 40's have a certain appeal and penache that makes for interesting subject matter. Between the emblematic Nazi's, Silver and Black dressed Fascists, and William Holden, you had some really snazzy stylin' and profilin' at that time.

But good Gawd, no more flanks and tanks and bullshit sentiments. It has been done to death and then some. 

/me calls in an airstrike on this thread