Now Playing...

Yeah, I get annoyed when people moan about stuff like that. I finished the original last year in a couple of weeks following my exams. I took it out and didn't open the box again until I started TLAD, and I'm doing the same for Gay Tony. Last night I drove around for a couple of minutes contemplating finishing the races, but I decided against it, ejected the disc and stuck it in the box. It's coming out on the 29th of October, so not quite so long a wait.

The story is the point in GTA IV. I prefer it to all previous GTAs just because it isn't a load of dumb fun. They tried to create an interesting world, narrative and set of characters, and they mostly succeeded. The fact that you're not spawning fighter jets every two minutes actually encouraged me to take it more seriously. I never deliberately killed a civilian during TLAD.

Got Far Cry 2 and Saints Row 2 for £30 total. Already got the weed. Should be a cheap weekend.

saints row 2 is just mindless fun

guitar hero 5 turned up this morning, my fucking strum bar doesnt strum down, not happy

On the topic of GTA IV, I can safely say I never liked it that much I got bored of it so quickly that I never even finished the main story. Got a lend of it off a mate and I still feel the same way.

Every time i play GTA IV again for more than 20 minutes or so, i get sucked in to a point where i spend hours just wandering round. Its incredibly immersive world.

I'm back into Nuts & Bolts. Every time I play it I'm reminded of its genius.

I'd just like to say that I only played GTA for 10 hours or so, gave it as many chances as I could face, before selling it off.

I think GTA IV is actually my favourite of the series in terms of narrative and character development, perhaps not in terms of the 'fun factor' though. I just find it so tricky going back and playing the older ones now as they feel so primitive in comparison. Anyone else?

Indeeed, San Andreas is shit!

Oh, and yeah, but who says videogames have to be fun anyways?

I mean, we look at films, Crank? Fun. Schindlers List? One of the Best films ever?

Music? Jamie T, fun, Stone Roses, fun?? Verve, fun?

I think the "Fun" factor in videogames isnt necessarily (apologies for my spelling, i've been out of education/work for a long while) something im looking for anymore. Even Mass Effect, or Oblivion i wouldnt certainly call fun.

I agree. Games like GTA IV, and Oblivion as you mentioned, are more about escapism than fun in my opinion.

Games need to break out of just being "fun", which mostly means male power fantasies. They aren't taken seriously because Ebert was pretty much right, indie games are the only things really combating this.

But if they aren't fun they have to replace that feeling with some other kind of emotion. Be it sadness, compassion or endearment, something has to make the player get involved beyond the polygons and pixels. And to me GTA looked more like a supposedly "fun" game with it's silly cut scenes and missions. But it wasn't.

Fun is what it should be about, no matter what game...
There is nothing better than playing a game and having a blast, be that alone or with a group of friends online...

Ok I finished Mass Effect.

Spoiler:

Nah, whatever happens regarding that will be in the sequel. There are multiple endings, but none lead to that.

i only really got 2 different endings, you save the council and humanity gets a seat with them or the council die and humantity become the new dominant species. so what others are there?

I'll download it in the morning

Bought Beautiful Katamari for a tenner earlier. It's great fun. The first time I've played more than the demo for a Katamari and I'm glad I did. So outrageous and fun!

Has someone else played The Path? Such a gem form an artistic point of view, I spoke about it a while back but I don't know if anyone looked into it.

I played The Graveyard and had mixed feelings. Recently picked up The Path on Steam after forgetting to grab it. Have hardly touched it sadly. Had a fascinating email discussion with Samyn about indie games, though, he's a bit of a nutter but very awesome.

Saints Row is fucking awesome, it's all about the fun and it's hilarious too.
Today a policeman fought a pedestrian, the pedestrian picked him up and threw him in the street and casually walked away. The policeman got up, tried to taze him but missed and engaged in combat once more. The pedestrian said "It's not my son but it'll do" and punched the policeman in the face.
The policeman kicked him in the nuts and caved his head in with his foot while he was down and then walked away from the carcass exlaiming "That's what I get paid for"
Andm I just went up to an arcade cabinet and found a zombie survival mini-game! for god sakes, you can get it for £12 on the net, fucking do so!

Haha, brilliant.

Most fun game i played this year.

WAIT until you find the underground Mall!

Bionic Commando is awesome.

Bionic Commando is less than awesome. It's less than average.

Rearmed, on the other hand, is fucking brilliant.

That gamble Xbox I bought off ebay died without any warning, but because there's no warranty to break I'm gonna open her up and have a crack at repairing. Should be fun, ordering some thermal paste and machine screws as we speak.