Thank You, I hope it is as good as they say. 

I just tried it.

Yes, it's rather challenging, but you get used to having to be more aware. The physics are pretty nice, a tad over-the-top with the rolling/flipping it seems. You may notice the windshield never seems to crack, someone at a RBR forum mentioned I probably don't have the damage set to real, because if I do - the windshield does crack. I couldn't find it in the demo, it might be in one of the INI files, or maybe they just opted it out for the demo. I'm a bit upset that they claim it's a simulation, yet the interior is rather bland. I know the actual cars don't resemble the production cars as far as interior, but they could have at least had a HUD in front of the wheel area. And I was a little annoyed by the slight off-hue blue of the Impreza, should've been darker (yeah I'm an Impreza WRC fanboy). I guess you should note that it is, after all, a "Quicky Rally" mode, so there is no setup screen, and maybe some things are just toned down a bit. There is a mod to place the gear number ahead of the steering wheel, I tried it (check www.bhmotorsports.com ) but didn't like it - for one my door was missing. Anyway, with patience, RBR can be fun, I'll buy it. 

That will do nicely. Feels much, much better than CM, looks pretty nice to. I only wish they would make the stages longer, like in Rally Championship 2000, most of the stages were 15, 20 up to 30 minutes long. (wish I never got rid of it now) But RBR will most likely surpass RC2000 in everything except for the stage length. Supposed to be released here today, 1/10/04, will go down and check in the morning.

I don't really ever see the interiors, I only use the views where you just see the bonnet, or the road (bumper view?). And I haven't experienced rolling/flipping yet, I try to stay on all fours ;) but I'm sure I will.

Oh, something else I didn't like that much was the sound, engine sound, but maybe it will grow on me, or maybe just needs to be mixed in with the other sounds differently, have to experiment. 

I just finished Katamari Damacy's storyline the other night. Still a bunch of challenges to do, like finding hidden packages, getting better times on levels to unlock the 'eternal' stages, getting better results on the various constallation side areas, and filling out the 'objects rolled up' thing which is totally cool and gives descriptions of all the things you've picked up in the game. I totally recommend this game to anyone with a PS2. and speaking of music, the game has the best soundtrack ever made for a game. A mix of J-pop, jazz, lounge, and light electronic. Great stuff, hope they make a CD availible.

Now I'm looking for a recommendation... Anyone played Gradius V? I loved Gradius 3 on SNES, and the V looks to be awesome. I'm thinking of getting Burnout 3 too, but everyone's already been talking about that. 

RBR has some utilities out there for editing - one you can extract all the audio.dat files and repack them:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/kegetys/rbr/ 

I see what you mean about the interior, you couldn't get much more plain than that dash :)

Rolling and flipping, yes, it may be a little over the top, but not to bad. You ever play VRally back in the day, now that was over the top, but still fun back then. 

Since I haven't owned a console for a couple of years, I wonder has anyone played the game 'Manhunt', PS2, XBox. I just came across this,
The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has sent through notice that Manhunt, the controversial console title from Rockstar Games, has now been Refused Classification:

This means the game, which has been freely available on the Australian Market since Late 2003, has now been banned and "cannot be legally sold, hired, advertised or exhibited in Australia. Any existing stocks of this game held by retailers must be removed from shelves immediately

Just wondering what all the fuss is about, and if it is any good. If it is any good I'd go out and buy a PS2 or XBox to have a gander 

Yeah, bloody, gruesome and goory as hell, but without any substance whatsoever 

Thank You, you haved saved me some money. I also see it is for PC, so may try demo if/when available. 

I've only played slightly past the first level. It can be kind of tense, but I haven't gotten far enough into it to really know. Some of the kill scenes make me feel downright guilty, but what can you expect from the concept? Not bad from what I've played, but I wouldn't go by that.

Other people have said that it's good up until you get guns, then it becomes just a regular shoot 'em up kinda game. 

to Paper Mario 2
and oddly enough, Def Jam fight for NewYork
I seems like it would be a fun party kinda game. Get together 3 of my whitest friends and kick eachothers asses to the gritty rythms of the ghetto. 

m'oh yeah 

I just ordered my copy of Katamari Damacy. I was also playing the Rogue expansion for Quake until I realized that it was sucking and wasn't going to get any better. 

Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Need for Speed Underground 2, Prince of Persia 2 (the sequel to Sands of Time), and GTA: San Andreas (obviously). All for PS2, which, I think, says plenty about my gaming habits. Hopefully will get a new PC 'soon'.

At the moment however, I'm trying to decide whether or not I should buy Burnout 3: Takedown, and am currently finishing Hitman: Contracts and Need for Speed Underground.

And if I do get that new PC... I'll go ahead and admit it: I'm a heretic, a pagan, a traitor. I'm not nearly as excited about Doom3 or HL2 as I am about Rome: Total War and even WH40k: Dawn of War. Especially the former seems really, really cool and worth playing.

Yeah, blasting away some freaks from Xen/Hell is nice enough, but to command the might of Rome on epic battlefields! To defeat Hannibal before he reach the gates of the great Roman cities, the last beacons of light and civilization for humankind! To crush the Greek phalanges as they try to stop my legionnaires. To plunder, pillage and burn Carthage for the second time, sprinkling salt over the ruins! To rule over all Mediterranean!

That's what I'm waiting for. 

It's starting to piss me off that I don't have a ps2 - seemingly so many cool (and exclusive) games are coming out for the damn thing. I'm still holding back on consoles because of the whole region lockout thing. It's ok with DVDs because you can easily get a good multi region player, but you can't do shit with a console, unless you want to get it chipped by some dodgy bloke on the market or something.

Fucking Gamecube. It has plenty of great exclusive titles, but they are mostly Nintendo's own stuff, which, let's face it, we already played when we had a snes or N64. I'm not saying their GC games are bad, but they really do follow a formula, which does piss me off after a while.

Damacy should be on the GC ffs. Gradius IV should too. I'm going to have to wait half a fucking year for GTA: San Andreas on PC. Unless.... 

 

[nt] 

the dodge blokes probably aren't that dodgy though, at least not all of them 

I think Nintendo is far and away one of the most innovative game makers. Don't be fooled by the reuse of franchise characters. 

what dont you like about mod chips? 

http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_neocontra_tgs_2k4.html

Neo-Contra :D 

We all know the many short comings of Counter-Strike, I myself have never been able to get into it. The only multi-player game I have gone hard core for was Team Fortress, but Counter-Strike took my LAN buddies away from me.

Grudge aside, and faults aside, what are the qualities of Counter-Strike that have made it such a gaming success.

If you really detest the game and find that question hard to give an objective treatment, how about the question, 'what are the major disfunctions of people who play Counter-Strike that make such a commonly played game', instead. 

it's easy to play first up. The speed of the game makes it easy for many first timers to get into it straight away (sure tactics etc come into play but you can survive for a fair while first up).

Contrast this with quake, UT etc. Most first timers would get slaughtered first up if they played online against anyone half decent. 

I must confess that I did like Day of Defeat, though.

Also, what's up with the pricing on the HL2 packages when you buy it via STEAM? You'd think it'd be cheaper than buying a boxed copy at a retail store, and yet the prices range from $50 to $80 USD? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't $50 the going price for most new games in stores in the US? If that's the case.. wtf? 

Contrast this with quake, UT etc. Most first timers would get slaughtered first up if they played online against anyone half decent.

This is very true.
Very.
:X ( ;) )

anyway, i *like* cs. i think it's a lot of fun, really. probably because i have lots of friends who play the game and i'm getting fairly good at it too.
i find the greatest aspect of cs is when you are playing with people you know, instead of nameless pubs, plus the voice chat thing is really cool. q3 would be a lot more fun if it had built in voice chat... playing q3dm with teamspeak or similar program is really fun.

as far as !faults and faults (what is the opposite of fault? O_O)
it's fun for me because there is more situational awareness than q3dm.
while using sound is fairly effective in q3dm, it is vital in cs, and i like being able to use this aspect of the gameplay to my advantage.

but really, that's about the only thing i can positively say why i like cs more than q3dm (or any other game with this type of fast paced gameplay).
All i know is i can play cs for 5 hours without getting bored, but only 2 or 3 on q3dm.

well, maybe it's because i was getting pwned in q3dm. :P