GolazoDan

Not a fan of the argument that this is all about "political correctness", as if such a thing is a negative. It's been turned into a negative, at least over here in the United Kingdom, because your right wing mentalists (usually of the Daily Mail) like to claim that "political correctness has gone mad". Of course, usually it hasn't. The popular misnomer is the example of a particular town "changing the name of Christmas" "to not offend non-Christians". It's political correctness gone mad, they'd say. This never happened, they made it up, but stories like that hammer into our heads that political correctness is always a bad thing, when at its most basic it's just trying to be considerate to many different groups of people.

Semi-related to the original point but I hope I'm not the only one who heard the black box which basically involves an autistic boy getting shot by the military. In many games nowadays, that might work. Showing the gruesomeness of the situation, decay of society or whatever. Unfortunately this game does appear to have been written by a teenage boy so it's hard to see past them just thinking YEAH MAN THIS IS FUCKIN SICK, PUT IT IN THE GAME.

It is also really easy to lose pursuers. I didn't like the first one at the time but I swear it wasn't this easy. Followed by helicopters, wuh oh, let's drop off this building and they've lost me.

Agree about some the military dialogue and general conversations in this game. I liked a side mission where a guy kept calling others BRAH and both Heller and this guy's friend were like STOP SAYING BRAH OR IMMA KILL YOU. I'll be honest, this man fit right into this universe. He was in the right game.

I did actually die once or twice on this. I put this mostly down to me being an idiot though. My brother's already finished the game and he said he was the same. At first I just ran around like a fool eating dudes and using rockets which works to a point, then my brother pointed out that the dude's really made to fuck you up from a mid-range distance so after a few rockets, just charged up to him and started wailing on him with claws. He could still spin around with his whip attack but I was away from that attack he does where he grabs you with his tongue and tries to crush you immediately after. Did the trick easily.

In short, that big tentacle is actually the idiot. Punish the idiot!

@Tennmuerti I actually don't think the enemies get that much worse as you go on. Mostly because you become really powerful. Those Orion dudes can be kinda jerks but that's more annoyance than anything. Thwarting the "double A to leap away and escape danger!" skillz I learned from Bruce Wayne himself.

@LobsterVendetta: You better god damn believe it. Don't let them there rappers know that Nitro ceased to exist a decade ago, It'd crush them.

You know, I like this news. I really do. I get kinda annoyed with how Call of Duty is the standard by which shit franchises seem to be judged. Sure, annualising it's kinda exposed the formula. Sure, it's part of this big corporation and is supposed to be this big money making machine, money first, quality second. However, I've played the games since MW2 (so three in a row at this point) and you know what? I've had fun with all of them. I wouldn't put them on my list of favourite games or anything but they're good games and I like the look of the new one, especially if they're having a go at something new for the franchise with mechs and all that stuff.

I LIKE TRIALS SOMETHIN SOMETHIN SOMETHIN MONDAY NITRO

I love that song but obviously remember very few of the words.

Danny O'Dwyer is excellent even though he is an Arsenal fan.

I've never played the first two games but I'm so excited for this. It looks so awesome.

That trailer. THAT TRAILER. HEALTH. FUCKYEEEEEEAH.

@Rudeboy217 said:

It blew my mind when I found out Rita Repulsa was a Japanese lady with a dubbed voice.

WHAT?

*headsplosion*

This week, on a whim, I spent too much money on a fighting stick for my Xbox 360. I'm not very good at fighting games, although I would quite like to be, so I managed to get my hands on a Street Fighter 4 stick. That's how the pros do it, right? And all those slightly insane and incredibly misogynistic bearded men, but I'd rather not be like them. That arrived on Friday in an absurdly large box and I gave it a whirl, playing Street Fighter 4 for the first time in honestly about two years. While initially I'm not particularly great, working through the battle mode as Ryu (your entry-level character for these games) and trying to learn the moves, I'm actually able to execute supers, ultras and even the basic Shoryukens and Hadoukens with minimal fuss, which is something I couldn't say about my pad experience. I'm yet to try the stick with Mortal Kombat, my other fighting game, but hopefully it also helps there.

I also, randomly, decided to go back to Driver: San Francisco, one of those games that got lost in the ever-growing backlog (the Splinter Cell: Conviction memorial list). And let me tell you, this is a good, good game. Is it the best sandbox game of all time? No, not at all. Grand Theft Auto 4 is the daddy in general, whereas Burnout Paradise's constant crazy driving is superior, but this is an absolutely cracking effort and reminiscent of the early Drivers that I enjoyed so much when I was first getting into video games. It is, and I say this in the best sense, the definition of an 8/10 video game. The funny thing is, I read people complaining about the shift mechanic before, like it was hackneyed and a cheap gimmick and all that ("Mindjack with cars"), but it's absolutely fantastic. It works well in the storyline itself because it makes for some complete mindfuck moments and supernatural weirdness, but it also makes for some incredibly fun side activities that are, dare I say it, Hot Pursuit-esque. Except, instead of getting helicopters to help you and using EMPs to blow up racers, you stop these racers by shifting into a lorry further up the road and driving headfirst into them. It's AWESOME. The driving itself feels a bit heavy at first compared to those other games but it kinda suits the classic vibe they're going for (and have gone for in past Driver games) so once you work it out it's totally fine. I'm also a great fan of the cutscenes involving Tanner, Jones, Jericho and various other random characters around the city. They're all prerendered and that but they're incorporated incredibly well in a talking-head style. There are very little moments where you think "Oh great, this is gonna be an entirely prerendered cutscene" which I appreciate.

I played lots of Fez and Trials: Evolution but instead of writing about them I'll just say that my hands, brain and sense of pride really hurt right now.