Cool_Freaker

*Another gaming consoles forum?*Yeah the Xbox 360 looks good, and seems to be the first next generation system to be released. I read on Torrentspy that it would be shown on MTV, as MTV and Microsoft seem to have entered some advertising agreement or something. Anyway, it'll be interesting when it is unveiled, and we can see whether it can match the Playstation 3's Cell chip thingo.

You mean Star Wars Galatic Battlegrounds? and then the expansion (which came out quite a bit later) the Clone Wars?That was sort of a mod, but I believe they simply used the same engine of AoEII, and it was not *meant* to be too similar to AoEII, although ended up to be. (Obviously not the best effort - after seeing what Valve did to make Half Life on the Quake 2 engine).I played it only briefly, seems fun, but still overshadowed by StarCraft I felt - as Galatic Battlegrounds came out later, seemed to appeal to a more niche audience, and didn't have ground breaking technology, nor was it overly popular for online play.

Yeah it's a real shame, but it's always been like that - Europe & Australia (and whatever other PAL territories there are) always get everything last. Sometimes we don't even get it at all - there are a whole lot more games released in the US that some of us would never see the light of - and thats not mentioning the gabillion others that never come out of Japan :)Think they're getting better though - especially the US developed games are getting released closer to the US release date - and I think Halo 2 had a same day worldwide release. I did hear they were perhaps postponing the release for the release of FFVII: Advent Children, but that's probably just a rumour... would anyone have an exact date for PSP release in Europe/Australia? I am yet to come across one...

I believe I read on this forums someone had also had bought a DS and had to return it within a week, also because of malfunctioning pixels. I doubt that either system has much of a edge in that respect - though the PSP screen, just by looking at the design, seems more delicate.

My hands have always been prone to sweat - it makes it a real pain when you have to shake hands with people but I've been this way for as long as I can remember. I don't even need to be doing anything, just as long as it's not cold, they can sweat - hell I could be doing nothing and my hands start sweating... it's a bit of a problem...So yeah, I do - My mouse pad is kinda screwed up because of it... but my mouse, GBA/GBC, and PSone & PS2 controllers haven't died yet, so I guess it's not about to ruin any hardware...yet.

Obviously in context - but if I didn't have a DVD player previously I'd prefer it to a DS. Johnny- you provide a good argument - and it's true, if you want a gaming system only, you're probably better off with a DS, as everyone knows Nintendo has always had a very good all-round lineup, although they have been a bit behind with getting third party developers behind them. I was, personally, expecting more from the DS though, I'm kinda disappointed by the current lineup of games, and so far the features don't seem to be as outstanding as I would have thought. The PSP hasn't even been released in Australia yet - so my decision is so far based on just news I've read on it.

I think it's a tad monotone - try either different blend modes on the different brush layers to get some slightly different shades, or brush in different shades of pink, or get totally different colours altogether :)Text on the second is much clearer and defined. I would recommend playing around with Blending Options for the text even more.

It's good to see there's still honesty in this world :)Obviously if you knew who's it was it'd make you feel rather bad if you kept it afterwards - knowing you could have returned it... well I would anyway...But if you didn't know who's it was, there's no harm in safe keeping it (and giving it a whirl while you're at it) until the person comes back to reclaim it.

Honestly I would choose a PSP, as it's more my style...The DS is mainly a games console, even with the talk of wireless connections and the ability to communicate with other players? Anyway, so far I haven't seen the games being particularly great, and the overall clunkiness of it doesn't make it much smaller in terms of size to the PSP.The PSP looks to be much more multifunctional, with the propsed ability for movies (though who really wants to watch on the small screen), and of course music. Not to mention I believe the actual hardware is more advanced. Obviously the downside is the higher price and the shorter battery life, but I think unless you are a huge fan of Nintendo games, for something with a bit more range you're better off with a PSP.And besides, anything that's gonna get Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children released on it gets my vote

I... don't get it The last paragraph is confusing? What is it implying. I'm sure it's supposed to be some sort of clever ending, except I cannot figure out what it's trying to convey...Oh and I swore Kuja was dead by the end, as was Zorn and Thorn?

Worms 3D was definitely the next step up for the Worms franchise, and it needed it after Worms 2, Armageddon and World Party being pretty damn similar...It does kind of lose the fast arcadey simple aspect to it, as I found it really quite hard to get a bazooka shot on target in Worms 3D... Not to mention there are some camera issues, and stuff like when your worm doesnt go as far as you think it might :)I guess the 3D aspect wasn't really all that original either, I think the PSone game Hogs of War was very similar but came quite a bit before...

Never had any problems with AoE2 (or AoE) on WinXP. I thought since it was a Microsoft product they'd try and make it as compatible as possible Have you tried the option which allows you to run it in Win (95,98,ME,2000) mode? Maybe a fresh install could help too? Or if worse comes to worse you could see if there was a problem with your CD and get a CD crack...

Is this an MMORPG or an offline RPG?I think in MMO's it's not so important to have a manual, as a lot can be learned online, through tutorial quest kinda things, which can also be done in an offline RPG, but usually ends up being a bit of a bore..I think a nice background to the story, even if it is introduced at the beginning of the game, something in words never hurts, though it doesn't need to be extremely long. There should be detailed instructions on all the menu functions. I swear a whole heap of RPG's I've played I haven't used the equip or whatever functions to their full potential because either - 1. The game hasn't given an ingame tutorial yet, 2. The ingame tutorial made no sense. Thus something clear which explicitly states how to do *this* and *this* is important.Some rundown on items would be nice too. I hate it when I don't know what an item does and I end up having to use it just to see what the hell it is.

Well I know in the normal CoD there's not really much point in cheating, never played United Offense so I wouldn't know...Multiplayer is definitely a no-no for cheating, you get banned and stuff, which ultimately isn't cool.I don't see much point in using cheats for a demo though, seeing you get such a limited version of the game, if you are stuck, then you might as well keep playing it. It's understandable in a full version game though, as some bits of any game can really piss you off when stuck, and some AI manages to pick you off from a distance, or swarms you with never ending masses of cannon fodder. But as I said earlier, CoD doesn't really need them seeing, it's a really well scripted and designed game.My friend did pass me the single player cheats though for the full version, which come in the form of some sort of program which you run while CoD is running. There's an unlimited health, unlimited ammo mode I think... has a Pizza icon for some reason...

I'm pretty sure you could have that in all the PS Final Fantasies, anything before that was turn based, and so is FFX (albiet a slightly modified version). The music was good, especially when you realise how some tracks have been remixed or a variants of music from the original FF. Chocobo Side Quest? Didn't really go for that hot and cold kinda thing, honestly; sometimes it got too tedious.

For my clan website I used MKportal. It requires you have a forum installed already though, and doesn't support all forums, though the main ones like VB, IPB 1.3, IPB 2.0 and PHPBB all are there. There's inbuilt Blog, Image Gallery, Quotes, Topsite, Reviews, Chat, Downloads, and Shoutbox modules.

A site for Age of Empires II: Age of Kings is it?Think the game is slowly fading out, and a site may be a bit hard seeing there's no (or hardly any) new developments in the way of game updates, new clans or tournaments... (not mentioning the already well established communities)... I guess the choice is yours though, however I would recommend focusing more on the upcoming Age of Empires game :)Sig is definitely too monotone. Grey is not good for a banner, as even if your site is bland, usually the banner should stand out. It's quite simple, which works I guess, but trying some more textures in the background would be nice, as would another render. Some kind of fancy border wouldn't do any harm either

Nah, he's not even hosted yet

Yeah, hard to say. But I guess time playing the game would be a good gauge... in which case1. Age of Empires II2. Final Fantasy (all of them - but longest game times on VII and IX)3. Counter-Strike4. Tekken (3 & Tag - always play em with friends)5. Command and Conquer (a lot of time spent on original and Red Alert, not to mention Generals)

I liked Kingdom Hearts quite a lot, and while I still prefer the Final Fantasies, it's definitely great to see some of the cameo roles in it :)I had a good stab at the Gameboy Advance version (Kindom Hearts: Chain of Memories), which was pretty good considering it was on the GBA...Never quite finished KH though, I wanted to find all the puppies, but I can't get back to Monstro, so I kinda stopped playing , might just finish it when I have the time.Hopefully Kingdom Hearts 2 will have a darker feel to it, and by judging by the game art out so far, it looks to be...

Phew... Your point being?

I think it would have to depend on the individual person, their personality, and of course the personality of the sibling. Having an older brother (or sister) would be good in the sense they could be mentors, and could *teach* you in a way your parents never could. Of course, there can be abusive elder siblings also, who feel you being the younger one have stolen the limelight... Having a younger sibling can be damn annoying, I know from first hand experience, but once again depends on them. But for a guy, I reckon an older sister would be cool... as you don't usually have the problems with sister-sister relationships, and generally I get the impression females adapt better to the mentor role. Just my two cents...

Not bad, like the overall effect. Don't think the render was utilised to its full extent though... I would position it to see more of it, or resize it, or even choose a different one which is more distinctive.But nice brushing...

Swear I've read a review quite similar :angry:Anyway, CS is fun, for sure, I think the speed is what I like. It's not too fast (Rainbow 6 3: Raven Shield fast), and it's not too slow with lots of health (ie C&C Renegade).Only quibble is the CS community usually tends to be quite immature and generally not very nice.

Yeah I agree. The moogle's were funny as hell - they are by far the best save points in Final Fantasy, as opposed to: Spheres, Rotating question marks, *World Map only*, Those funky ball things from FFVIII I forget what FFVI had but if I remember correctly they also had a big moogle presence. Same here. Don't like MMORPGs, and paying continuously doesn't rest well with me. I quite often dig out my old FF's and play them occasionally (once a month, every few months even) Never had any problem with FFI & II:DOS on GBA like that. It obviously not as engaging as any of the later FF's, but it's great to see the roots of the series, and plus the origins of Vivi and Dagger's white mage suit. FF9 is the only FF I bothered to train enough to finish the game, as sad to say as it is In just about all the others (bar 4 & 5), I have put it aside, mainly because of boss difficulties, and usually I can't be bothered to run around for hours to train. I believe I spent 10 hours straight on FF9 just running around those sand pools (when you try and find Kujas base), versing all those sand worms. I really appreciated the character design, with it's more *cute* feeling, and how much more stuff seemed to be interactive, or moved than in FF7/8. I guess the lack of freedom in the way of character stats/skills development might be annoying to some, but I didn't have any problems with it... I also liked the level design. I'm not a huge fan of looooonnnnnggg dungeons that take ages to finish and have creepy music the whole time with enemies just continuously coming. FF9 was fairly minimal in this, and I guess is another reason for me to finish it too