Computer games.

Brennan said:
What on earth is Valve thinking ?!?!?

controller.jpg


http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/27/4762318/valve-steam-box-controller
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I have high hopes for the Steam Box, but yeeah even Nintendo would laugh at that pad.
 

http://thisandthatmikey.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/dominik-diamonds-are-forever-orange-box.html

Dominik Diamonds Are Forever: The Orange Box, Part 3: Portal
Portal is an absolutely cracking game. I know another internet goon like me espousing the brilliance of this game must be getting redundant for some, but it really ahs to be said. Portal is up there with The Wire, Breaking Bad and Mr Muscle Window Cleaner in the “everyone universally bangs on about how bloody brilliant it is” category. But it is bloody brilliant. It really, really, REALLY is!

Portal is a game that challenges and enthrals in equal measure. Once I started playing it, I really couldn’t stop myself. I’d finish a puzzle and say “Well, that was fun, time for me to go feed/clothe/wash myself now before I become even more a shuffling wreck than I already am”. But then I’d walk into the next room “just to have a quick look at the next puzzle” and I’d ultimately then complete another three in a row. I just couldn’t help myself. It was like when I had a box of 12 Krispy Kreme donuts and ended up eating half the box because I still had coffee remaining and I just couldn’t stop dipping them.

To try and explain Portal won’t be entirely easy but I’ll give it a go. Basically, it’s a first person puzzler. You play an unnamed female character that wakes up in a strange testing centre. You quickly acquire a gun that can create Portals in the walls of the complex. You then have to use said Portal gun to try and escape the complex itself. Sometimes you won’t be able to access certain areas before you have pressed a button or moved a block onto a switch to ensure the escape door remains open. In situations like these, you will need more than just the Portal Gun itself to make it to safety.

I’ve personally never been hugely fond of games that included puzzles. The original Tomb Raider games on the Playstation would sometimes drive me to despair with some of their fiendish and downright annoying conundrums. However, Portal never frustrated me in that way. I mean, it did frustrate me, but in a way that made me want to solve the puzzle. It didn’t contain the agonising frustration that made me want to use Tomb Raider 2 as a £40 coaster.

The difficulty curve of the game was set up just right for me. It eased me in gradually and by the time the puzzles started getting harder, I felt prepared to tackle them. Considering that I’m hardly what you’d call “good” at video games, I can only conclude that Portal has been weighted perfectly in regards to difficulty. The game doesn’t outstay its welcome either. It clocks in at around 3 hours and is paced to complement the run time exceptionally well.

As far as negatives go, I don’t really have any. The game is perfect for what it needs to be. If it was released on it’s own for £40, it would not be worth the money as there just isn’t enough game to justify that price. As part of The Orange Box though, it’s a veritable steal. I almost feel guilty playing it, as if I’ve unfairly got one over on the people at Valve.

If you don’t like puzzlers, I’m still quite certain you will enjoy this. I really can’t find a complaint with it. It exceeds everything it should have been and happily embraces everything it can be.

Portal is just amazing and if you don’t like it, you can go fist a Yak

Rating – 10


Play it, love it, praise it and have a pint of sunshine while you’re at it.
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Final Fantasy VII is currently 50% off on Steam, meaning you can own arguably the greatest game of all time for under a fiver. Madness.

AND... X-Com: Enemy Unknown is 75% off at £7.50.

ANNNNNNND.... Mirror's Edge is also 75% off at £3.74.

It's a good day to be a gamer!
 
Tubey said:
Final Fantasy VII is currently 50% off on Steam, meaning you can own arguably the greatest game of all time for under a fiver. Madness.

AND... X-Com: Enemy Unknown is 75% off at £7.50.

ANNNNNNND.... Mirror's Edge is also 75% off at £3.74.

It's a good day to be a gamer!
Click to expand...

Lahm in a FIFA pack.. Indeed it is..
 

Tubey said:
Final Fantasy VII is currently 50% off on Steam, meaning you can own arguably the greatest game of all time for under a fiver. Madness.

AND... X-Com: Enemy Unknown is 75% off at £7.50.

ANNNNNNND.... Mirror's Edge is also 75% off at £3.74.

It's a good day to be a gamer!
Click to expand...
I already have (pirated) X-Com, brilliant game. A lot of places voted it #1 for last year as well.

Never played FF, if I had the money on my card (or at all, student life is tough atm sadly), I'd buy it, just cuz everyone says it's so great.
 

No chance i'll be getting the next Xbox after today's pisstake.

After all the problems i had over the years with the old style 360s (RROD three times), my Slim had been working fine for a few years since i bought it. Hard Drive failed today.

Final straw !
 
Brennan said:
No chance i'll be getting the next Xbox after today's pisstake.

After all the problems i had over the years with the old style 360s (RROD three times), my Slim had been working fine for a few years since i bought it. Hard Drive failed today.

Final straw !
Click to expand...

Sheeiitt, that's bad. Is there any way you can recover the stuff on there?

I've had similar trouble, I'm on probably my 5th Xbox since 2007, either RROD or error messages killing them, thankfully they were all replaced without cost, though. I've still got an old style Xbox, I don't know how long it'll last for but it must be on borrowed time now.
 

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