liveinabin

It IS a bit big. I've clocked about 50 hours, I'm still only level three and I'm spending most of the time wandering around the grounds of my new house, wondering if I'll be able to get away with killing the irritating Orc woman I share it with.

I'd like to go on record as REALLY loathing the Wii and really regretting buying it (aside from Endless Ocean - why is there always one game?). However.... Ghostbusters for Wii looks totally brilliant. The other versions suffer from trying to be realistic. You still can't do humans realistically on a computer. The plastic skin and those dead eyes just totally ruin the illusion. Best move is to characature everything, like they have with the Wii game. So we get the best visuals AND we get to catch ghosts with the Wii-mote. SALE.

Actually, I just reread your post. You hated the drift racing? That is the whole point of Ridge Racer, it always was.

Wow, I am totally polar to that. I liked the first game, really disliked Revolution (for, amongst other things, the cheek of calling it 'revolution' when it's practically the same), enjoyed Rage Racer (but grip cars? Come on). However, Ridge Racer Type 4 (with the all important Jogcon) is still pretty much my favourite game of all time. Sure, the handling evolved since the first two games but it really was a wonderful experience. It's still the only game that I've written a thankyou letter to the publisher for. Now, I'm not for a minute saying anything you wrote was wrong, far from it, but it's just interesting that even two fans of the same franchise can want such different things from it.

Conversely, I hated the PS2 but love the PS3. The PS2 was an underpowered, lazy move by Sony that payed off ONLY because of the brand name and the DVD player. The PS3 is a real technological marvel and nothing really competes on that level with it. We're just beginning to see what it can do and, while it may well stay third (especially in the US where the Xbox brand has always done well), the gaming market is definitely big enough to be third in now and still make a bundle. Of course it's number 2 in Japan and will probably take the second spot in time in a lot of Europe. I think Sony should just keep on doing what they're doing now. Momentum is building and they've got a lot of great stuff to offer this round, particularly on PSN which is, in my opinion, the PS3's greatest asset.

I'm a worthless and bitter sex criminal and I haven't played Animal Crossing in ages. Should I pick it up again?

I know it's universally lauded now, but I picked up the R4 (the high capacity SD card variant) and it's great. Really easy, skinnable interface, no problems at all. Sure, Nintendo have locked out a few of the newer games from working on it, but I want to play emulators of old computers so I'm very happy with that. When I want Chrono Trigger, I'll go out and buy it like a nice person.

Get Ridge Racer 2. It's easily the finest title in the series so far (including the newest gen versions). Basically, they've taken every track from every Ridge Racer game up to Ridge Racer V (including the arcade-only Rave Racer), made them all look (even more) beautiful and given you the opportunity to boost around them at tremendous speeds (the new nitrous boost is a bit of a change for Ridge Racer but, thankfully, doesn't alter that 'feel'. It makes it better if anything). Added to that, you get the intro movies from all the games as unlockables! Only reason I say to get Ridge Racer 2 is that it has all the tracks, more music, more movies but is ostensibly the same game as Ridge Racer 1. It even has the first PSP game's intro movie as a reward so there is NO reason to buy the first game, you just get less. I think 2 is the game they really meant to release if they hadn't been pushing to get the first game out at the PSP launch. The titles of the games are rather confusing though. In Japan, the games are called Ridge Racers 1 & 2 (in reference to them being link-up mulitplayer). Ridge Racer 1 would make you assume it was just the two original tracks. Dumb name. Astonishing game. Oh yeah (and sorry for going on ), the drift mechanic, as you'll know, differs slightly with each Ridge Racer. If you could corner well in Ridge Racer 4, you'll be an instant pro at this. You'll have a garage full of Assolutos and Danvers before you can blink. As for RPGs, Star Ocean is pretty good. PS1 conversions, but really lavishly done, with new art and cutscenes. And as Courderoy Guy recommended, LocoRoco is amazing. If you have anything resembling a soul, this will captivate you.

But I can get the GC originals for practically nothing. Thanks for looking though.

They raised the unit price to stores. I'm not aware that the increased cost has been passed on to customers yet though. Half price isn't too bad for the games. In UK, they're £30 (Wii games are £40) which is insane. Given that titles like Endless Ocean debuted for £20 there's just no excuse for this.

Ridge Racer 7 has a trackside T-Rex. You don't get to race it though

While the Play Control series is not the worst idea in history, charging close to full price for these games is theft on a level that only Nintendo can pull off. These should be half price. They're hardly remakes, just tweaked code and the work involved in no way justifies what they're charging for them.

I agree although I'd like to stress the difference between good graphics 'technically' and good graphics 'artistically'. The former adds nothing to the emotional impact of a game whilst the (much rarer and non-technology dependent) latter makes all the difference. The only emotions that seem to be pushed in most AAA games are 'fear' and/or 'panic'. Both of which are fairly easy to do and have both been done to death. We should be getting more believable characters who can emote and illicit an emotive response these days. I played the excellent Captain Blood (1990) yesterday and it's just silly that a game so old has still got the most believable conversational intelligence of any videogame.

Ah, fair enough. I think that as long as Moore's law still holds, Sony's promises won't hold much water.

Looks good. I'll be intrigued to hear what Aquanauts Holiday is like, I find the undersea world vastly more interesting that land. Still, Hakuna Matata looks like a nice upgrade of the old Pokemon Snap idea, which I liked. I'm a little concerned that Aquanauts Holiday won't be too playable because of the language barrier. I'm really wanting more Endless Ocean to play so I hope my worries are baseless.

Computer technology has always moved along at a frightening rate. There is no way ever that a computer can still compete after 10 years. Ignore what Sony (and every other company) say. If consoles were to last 10 years, the Dreamcast would still be cutting edge today. Sure, the PS3 might still be around in 8 more years, but it'll be the cheap, cruddy little console that the kids play their movie-license games on.

Great though the PS3 is, do you really think it'll still be impressive in 8 years time? I'm going to want something a little more advanced by then.

Uh, OK. That raises it's stock a little. They certainly did a great job with Excite Truck.

The new episodic adventures are, if anything, even better than the Lucasarts original. The writing is absolutely wonderful. Well worth picking up.

This doesn't sound like any kind of Excite Truck (or excite bike) sequel. Rather it sounds a hell of a lot like a totally unrelated race game that they've slapped the 'excite' moniker on so that people like us will sit up and take notice.

There apparently will be a few boxed DSi games, but they won't work with the DS because, of course, they'll be using the special features (camera etc.) of the DSi. Not to worry though as, apart from the camera and the SD store, both systems are pretty much exactly the same. No-one is going to limit sales by releasing exclusive games for the DSi when there are SO many DSs and Lites out there.

Well, I think that, amongst analog controllers at least, the Saturn, Playstation, Xbox, 360 and Gamecube pads are all more or less exactly as good as each other. They all do a very similar job more or less equally well. I only omit the DC pad because of the insanity of storing your save data on the pad, too many lost PSO characters thanks to that.

Although bear in mind that there are several 'versions' of Killer Bees (in the same cart. a bit like Super Gameboy carts) depending on your system. The basic Odyssey2/Videopac version is visually basic but fun but when you play it on something like the JoPac, it's graphically pretty flash. Only reason I mention this is that it might look bit flashy under emulation, but you can really kill a lot of the graphics (and all of the background) without changing the game one bit. The 2600 could do it without breaking a sweat, I'd imagine. And I'd LOVE to play a conversion.

Also, look at the type of games on offer on both systems. If one system has more of what you fancy, get that one. While you're doing that, be sure to include all the download only games from the XBLM / PSN stores. I don't like FPS and 'gritty realism' games, I prefer blue-skies, abstract games and odd Japanese concepts so i bought the PS3, but that's just me. Your mileage will differ.

Right, I've spent the last week crafting a level. It's a rather British take on the whole retrogaming thing entitled ZX Spectrum Adventure. Based around the games and characters of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, including it's inventor Clive Sinclair, it came about through a desire to recreate (as closely as LBP physics would allow) the first level of 1983 platformer, Manic Miner. It kinda grew to include nods to Ultimate's (aka Rare's) Jetpac, Ant Attack and a final showdown with Evil Alan Sugar, the boss of Amstrad and latter day owner of the Sinclair brand, featuring a novel use for Sinclair's odd little Microdrive tape cartridges. Username on PSN is still Liveinabin. Please feel free to have a go!