So, anyone played this yet? Is it the excuse I need to fork out for a 360? 

Very pretty, specular maps too intense, motion blur is cool, gameplay is nothing new but it's fun and polished, coop is awesome, Dom is a fucking idiot. 

From what I hear, if you have a HDTV, the answer to your question is YES. 

It was mentioned so I thought I'd throw in my two cents. I'm not really a fan of the whole party-game genre... it always seems a bit contrived to me, imagining people sitting around playing bongos to get points, pretending they're on quiz shows, dancing on mats. Seriously, karaoke on a playstation? That's pretty weak.

I think the problem is, when I actually want to party, I don't really want to be sitting around an x-box acting like a douche. I want to be acting like a douche in a public place, doing terrible things and risking arrest.

Also, I play quite a bit of guitar... what's the point of pretending to play a riff using a plastic controller when you could actually play it, given a few minutes practice?

So I had a, i guess, negative bias going into Guitar Hero. When my brother offered me the controller, I decided to give it a chance though, and uh, I was wrong. This game definitely deserves all the praise it gets... I've had trouble finding the time or the motivation to really get into a game lately, but you can pick up the controller anytime and try and improve a score. If you've got 2 guitars, the battles are awesome, and if not, just take turns.

If you play real guitar, it actually helps too... you can do hammer-ons and pull-offs and there's a whammy bar... it feels pretty natural, this is pretty much the only PS2 game I can beat my brother at. I can't wait to try the sequel, if it actually improves on the first I may actually buy a PS2 for myself just to play it.

Good set of songs too, it must be said. You'd expect to get a load of mtv rock shit, but you get some Stevie Ray Vaughn, Hendrix, Cream, Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult (Godzilla!), Ramones, the list goes on. Try it and you'll see. 

because it evoked images of all the DDR nuts I went to college with, but I got drunk at a cinco de mayo party one of the programmers here threw to break his new house in and discovered I kind of enjoyed it.

it's also really hard to play when you're sauced on tequila, but I still beat kungfusquirrel. :) 

Well I played plenty more of it, fuck you get value for money in this, I've now explored pretty much the whole coastal region and done everything except committing to helping either the Rebels or Orcs. I quite like the Orcs and the way they always call you MORON. There's so much to do and to explore for a demo, well impressive. Don't know if I could fit in a whole game of this....120 hours playtime or something *gulp*.

But it is tempting me...

there should be patch to fix crashes and performance (hopefuly) I would wait till then.

Deffo. I don't have problems with FPS, and even tried it on high settings and it's not bad, but loading chugs like a fat bitch on heat. I'd probably wait until firstly some patches, and secondly getting some more RAM at the very least. 

Jago: I don't own a HDTV, so I guess the question now becomes "is it worth me buying both a 360 and a HDTV to play Gears of War" o_O

Lunaran: rockage. Who's Dom, the player character? 

I;m guessing the domination game mode like in UT. 

I've only played a couple of times at starbreeze "Friday beer" but it does as a party game and if I got it at home I think I'd sit with it until I could play all the songs near flawlessly...

I hope there will be comes a wii version though as I don't have a ps2 and don't think I will get a ps3 or 360 in the foreseeable future. Another option is getting the game disc controller and ps2tousb adapter and use it on your PC with Frets on Fire but as that tends to bug out after a while it doesn't seem like a good idea at the moment anyway. 

...is whether to get Twilight Princess for the gamecube or for the wii. Assuming I will eventually buy a wii, I still want to get the one that's a better version of the game. The wii version is basically a port, and I'm assuming the entire game was designed for the gamecube controller, so I'm thinking it'll play better on the cube. 

Well, it's getting excellent reviews on the Wii anyways... and from what I understand the GC version won't be so easy to aquire... I think it won't even be available at all here in Europe. =\ 

Double two?

Dubya two?

Weeeee?

A block of port cheese for a correct answer. 

Burp! 

Headthump: it is pronounced like the English word "we."

metlslime: From what I've read, the Wii will have support for both Gamecube games and the Gamecube controller. So you should be able to play it on your Wii with a Gamecube controller no matter what choice you make. 

the impression I got is that there's no reason to get the gamecube version as long as you intend to get a wii. 

and continually gets himself killed. 

The article I read about it (can't find the source right now) strongly suggests that the Wii version would be far preferable. Apparently it really takes advantage of the new controller, and its not just a port. 

http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/744/744044p1.html

Quote: If you have the means to buy Twilight Princess for Wii and you still get it for GameCube, you are a fool. 

Apparently though they for some reason decided to remove the support for the Game Cube controller for the Wii version, so if you get it for the Wii you can't play it using your GC controller.

Get the Wii version though, all the reports seem to be saying that once you are used to the controls it's hard to imagine going back to using the GC controls. 

Are you going to be playing Guild Whores Nightfall or what?? 

So I downloaded the demo after Shambler was raving like a madman about it all over the place (moron! :D)

It looks great, and has huge scope, BUT:

WHAT THE JESUS FISTING FUCKING CHRIST were they thinking when they made the combat system!??!!?

I really dont know where to start, its just SHIT, so so so utterly mindbendingly SHIT! So you stand there with an orc in your face, what do you do? I TELL YOU, press rmb as fast as you can!!! Oh look you have an "angry boar" in your face, what do you do? DIE OVER AND OVER BECAUSE THESE THINGS SEEM TO IGNORE THE PLAYERS SWORD.

All you need to do to defeat anything except boars is press rmb madly, and you win every time! Apart from this steaming pile of rancid fly infested shit the game is great.

I am actually really annoyed, because otherwise the game seems really really great, but with the current system it just hurts to play it.

Deeply saddened... 

Yessuh, we've been playing it a bit (up to level 10 or something, so not exactly blitzing it, but getting there). I only play it when both Amy and myself feel like it though, which hasn't been a lot since the first weekend we grabbed it (too many other good games to play as well!)

I do enjoy playing with my little guild whore FRUITY BIX though (she's a paragon) so maybe I should get back into it...

I assume you're playing on the European servers? I am too... you can guess my username I'm sure... I can probably guess yours as well! 

Well that sounds fabulous... mindbendingly shit, I'll have to remember that one. :D 

You are a total loser, I don't know whether to laugh or sympathise :).

Okay here is the deal about combat, pay attention to all of this:

1. Pressing the strafe keys along with the attack keys(s) produces different attacks i.e. sideways ones. There is also some attack where you spin behind yourself using the back button. These combos are supposed to be important in the game and might be worth practising out of combat.

2. I can never be bothered to try any of the above combos as they seem to have no additional effect (unlike, say, Blade Of Darkness) and are to tedious to try in combat. I tend to stick to tactical button mashing.

3. BUT there are subtleties to that it's worth picking up on. For a start, animals are harder than other enemies as they knock you down AND run away from your attacks. To deal with that, step back if they knock you down, and then attack after a brief delay, AND try to corner them to stop them running. Then button mash them.

4. Combat is not that important a part of the game it seems, compared to exploration, RPGing, taking quests etc. Equally, purely fighting is not that important part of combat. Build up your armour, your health, your fighting stats, buy a better sword, and it will help a lot. With a fire-sword, light armour, 120 strength etc, boars are PISS.

5. Sword fighting is only one of many options. Don't forget you have archery and magic too. In the early stages when you are weak, those are very useful to avoid getting pwnd. 

...you wearisome pussy. Just for you I've written up all the attack details I've found.

Things to remember:

1. Default position for the sword is ahead. There is also a left position which is functionally identical to ahead, and a right position which is different. During attacks the player alternates ahead/left and right positions, but if the player moves the sword defaults to ahead.

2. For blocking and blocking attacks, sword is always ahead.

3. All non-strafing attacks move the player forward.

4. Pressing strafe or backward along with an attack usually sweeps an attack in that direction AND changes the player's facing to that direction - this is the basis of different attacks. Pressing forward has no effect.

5. I don't know how useful these combos are, BUT I can make the following guesses:

Mashing attack with 180 - useful for focusing on one enemy but attacking others who are closing in.
Mashing block - useful to chase reluctant enemies (seems to have some reach)
Sweeping attacks - good with a few enemy at once.
Block groin jab - useful for awkward creatures who stun you (seems to be a powerful attack?)
Strafing attacks - useful when surrounding enemies are becoming more of a threat.

...

Boring list of attacks:

Sword ahead/left:
Press attack - quick diagonal attack L > R
Hold attack - big sweeping attack L > R
Press attack + press strafe right - sweeping attack to R + change direction to R
Press attack + press strafe left - sweeping attack to L + change direction to L

Sword right:
Press attack - quick diagonal attack R > L
Hold attack - big sweeping attack R > L
Press attack + press strafe right - short hack to R + change direction to R
Press attack + press strafe left - sweeping attack to L + change direction to L

General:
Hold attack + hold back - big 180' sweeping attack, direction depends on side sword started on.
Mash attack - continuous wide attacks
Mash attack + press back - wide attacks then big 180' sweeping attack, direction depends on side sword was last on during continuous attacks
Press block - short fencing jab
Hold block - block
Press block + press strafe - short jab to L or R as appropriate + change direction to L or R
Mash block - continous narrow fencing attacks
Mash block + press back - narrow attacks then smaller 180' sweeping attack, direction depends on side sword was last on during continuous attacks
Hold block + press attack - short L > R swing
Hold block + hold attack - low groin jab

That is all I've found. Combining various attacks does not seem to have any further effect. Some of these are difficult to time, e.g. a direction button may need to be pressed just after attack but when the attack is still being initiated.