Finished playing the Overlord 2 demo. All in all an great game! Baby seals need to die! 

Basically more of the first as it seems, but certainly more in every aspect. Nonetheless more of the quality gameplay from one of the best games in the last years. A mixture between Pikmin, Fable and Dunegon Keeper. I will spread the again on release that's for sure.  

Looks and feels like the first part and although I am a bit dissapointed because the technical advancement could have been bigger, one can at least play the game full detail in high resolution on every common system I would say.

On a sidenote, Codemasters proofs again to be one of the best publishers out there today. A demo short before release and a (as long as the demo shows) bug-free game, you can not expect from many other developers or publishers nowadays. Not to mention multi-platform support and release for consoles, handhelds and the PC on 25th of June. I love you Codemasters!

---

"*** the World and drop the Neutron!"

ooh would that demo be on xBox live! would you know? I loved the original Overlord, just sooooo much addictive fun!

I am revisiting Oblivion, just to polish off the last few points - Shivering Isles, Theives Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Fighters Guild need to be finished ... then I think I will crack on with Fallout 3 ... Have just finished playing Mass Effect for the 2nd time, will run through it again for a 3rd time closer to the release of Mass Effect 2 purely so that I can recall the story and fashion the character I want to take forward in the second game!

otherwise, been playing Tony Hawks Proving Ground and Guitar Hero 3 on PS3 and Tiger Woods 08 on the Wii ...

---

Mortalitis_Infinitas:

You have gained enough renown to purchase the "Creative Director of European studios at Microsoft Games Studios" title.

satansmunchkin:

ooh would that demo be on xBox live! would you know? I loved the original Overlord, just sooooo much addictive fun!

Dunno, I have no XBox or Live. Well I have Windows Live, but you know ... it simply sucks. Downloaded the Demo of Overlord directly from Codemasters! Also read something about the Playstation Store, so I think it will be out for the PS3 too.

It worked nice with the 360 controller though which is fully supported in the PC version. Well just like in the first part too.

---

"*** the World and drop the Neutron!"

Yeah it's also on live and psn.

---

oh ... great... now I have to decide again between 360 and PS3 versions of the game ... >.> grr!

---

Mortalitis_Infinitas:

You have gained enough renown to purchase the "Creative Director of European studios at Microsoft Games Studios" title.

I'm stuck between playing The Witcher, which I actually bought, with real money, a year or so ago, and playing The Sims 3, which gives me absolutely no satisfaction, but has also started to haunt my thoughts.

---

I only wrote this because I hate you.

Did you pay for Sims 3?? or pirate it?? becuase if I had the type of PC that could play a game like that I would pirate it just becuase they attempted to bribe people out of doing it, I dont even think I'd play it all that much, just pirate it out of principle.

Anyways after some one posted a long ass post on  this thread about how he's started playing morrowing and oblivion again he kind of rekindled my insterest in it nd now ive been playing that again.

Also I found an old game in my draw which came as a bundle with my last 360(and oldest one yet almost 2 years dont want to jynx it though)nd that is viva pinita, not as bad s I expected, can be addictive, put it on at 21:00 for "2 seconds" just to see what it was like, looked at my clock "2 seconds" later and its 3:00 lol.

Also been played alittle bit of Far Cry 2, trying to make locke park lol, the only real problem with Far Cry 2 is that they compeletly omited splits screen multiplayer, which kinda takes alot of the fun out of map making, one far cry predator,, I used to mke maps so I could play them on the weekend when my mates and cusin used to come round for the weekly piss up, the map maker made things more interesting becuase you never had the same thing, I'd make a map through the week and try and make it nothing like the other maps, (Had one with a secrect underground tunnel which was mint). But here you cn only play the maps online with people I couldnt give  *** about.

---

"IrishMorn"
If Adon and Sagat step in....ah, what the hell, I'll get drunk and join in on that one.

Overlord 2 looks pretty , from what I've seen as well. I was also a big fan of the original.

As far as what I'm playing right now goes, still slogging about Albion for the most part while at home. On the road, I pick up the PSP and have a little fun with Patapon 2. Once in a while, I'll turn on the faux-Fender and play a little Rock Band 2 or cruise around in Burnout Paradise. But... it's mostly just F2 and Patapon 2.

Definitely looking forward to Overlord 2 and I'll probably pick up inFamous as well. I was pretty interested in GH: Extreme Hits until I saw the full set list. Too much 80's hair metal for my taste, I think. Maybe when it's on the bargain shelf...

---

squidproquo:

You are a murdering machine, sir.

No, I don't have a sex change potion. But I do have this!

The Witcher is fun, although installing the patch was a bloody hastle, put it all in the same folder, of course they don't tell you that you can't put it all on the desktop :\ Confused me for a day or two.

Other than that, the game is frustrating, but fun. Things like getting killed by stupid plants that gang up on you is really no big concern when you're as smooth a man as I am.

Or if you have soundproof walls.

---

I only wrote this because I hate you.

You could always, y'know, just set fire to the plants...

Witcher rocks. Really enjoyed it. Well, apart from the whole Nudie Game Cards thing - gratuitous sex for the sake of it is a wonderful and beautiful thing regardless of how much you have to pay a cleaner afterward, but there's a time and a place for it. And it did rather jar you out of the whole gritty realism thing.

What I did particularly like about The Witcher is it did the whole Moral Dilema thing really well. Unlike, say, Bioware have been guilty of in the past, it doesn't treat the whole thing like some kind of absurd mini-game that gives /naughty points and incentives/super powers for being uber/ubernaughty. It just goes "Look, the world is shite. Here's what you can do, but frankly all your options are shades of grey rather than simplistically black and white. Oh, and don't blame me if stiffing that group to line your own pockets comes back to bite you on the *** 20 hours further into the game." Which, inevitably it does

Goes quite a long way to making you feel like your actions actually have some consequence further than a little karma meter ticking away in the corner of the screen. Really very well handled I thought, and world+dog could learn a lot about how to handle narrative choice from the game

---

Yeah, women in the game seem to just randomly say "Hey, want me to show you something?" and then it gets on with the slightly disturbing sex scene. I always feel a bit dirty looking at the cards, so after Abigail, I just stopped trying to seduce women.

Seducing Dwarves is so much more fun anyway.

---

I only wrote this because I hate you.

Sovvolf:

Did you pay for Sims 3?? or pirate it?? becuase if I had the type of PC that could play a game like that I would pirate it just becuase they attempted to bribe people out of doing it, I dont even think I'd play it all that much, just pirate it out of principle.

Pirating out of principle. Right.

The excuses get worse and worse...

matneee:

What I did particularly like about The Witcher is it did the whole Moral Dilema thing really well. Unlike, say, Bioware have been guilty of in the past, it doesn't treat the whole thing like some kind of absurd mini-game that gives /naughty points and incentives/super powers for being uber/ubernaughty. It just goes "Look, the world is shite. Here's what you can do, but frankly all your options are shades of grey rather than simplistically black and white. Oh, and don't blame me if stiffing that group to line your own pockets comes back to bite you on the *** 20 hours further into the game." Which, inevitably it does

Goes quite a long way to making you feel like your actions actually have some consequence further than a little karma meter ticking away in the corner of the screen. Really very well handled I thought, and world+dog could learn a lot about how to handle narrative choice from the game

100% agree

I downloaded sims 3 and played it for 20 min. Then uninstalled.

I still (legally!) got sims 2 and the improvements werent that big compared to all the stuff they cut out from sims 2 and the expansion packs.... Guess they are saving it for next months expansion.

---

Undead---God:

Sovvolf:

Did you pay for Sims 3?? or pirate it?? becuase if I had the type of PC that could play a game like that I would pirate it just becuase they attempted to bribe people out of doing it, I dont even think I'd play it all that much, just pirate it out of principle.

Pirating out of principle. Right. The excuses get worse and worse...

If I did pirate games, and I'm not saying that I do, because that'd be silly, then I certainly wouldn't be pirating out of some "LOL CHAOTIC NEUTRAL" sense of justice, I'd be pirating because quite frankly, I'm a cheap ***. Plus, the fact that you don't have to go through all that horrible anti piratan crap makes it so much more appealing.

Hell, if I pirated, I may even have pirated the games that I already own, because it'd be so much easier to not have to find the disk, and put in the silly codes and stuff.

---

I only wrote this because I hate you.

Or just find no cd cracks. Not that they're particularly legal, but if you own the game I see nothing wrong on principle.

---

The only thing worse than beating a dead horse is betting on one.

Pirating on principle? Hehehe. And people wonder why so many developers are walking away from PC dev these days...

As for me, I'm mostly playing Ghostbusters at the moment. Probably pick up Overlord 2 next week as well.

Well it's nearly just as easy pirating 360 games... Shops here even sells them with modchip/flashed or whatever it is they do to them to be able to play pirated or as they say it "backup" of their games. All you need then is a dvd burner really.

Started playing Valkyria Chronicles again, forgot how it actually was and then playing some Wallace & Gromit for pc (which is awesome btw) and uncharted 2 beta... Just so many lame team killers in it.

---

I am playing another brilliant demo, Anno 1404. Best graphics I have ever seen in a real time strategy/ ecomony simulator/ city builder so far. Very complex game again and I enjoyed the other Annos too. Certainly one of the best games this year!

Nonetheless, they will release the final game with Tages DRM copy protection which means the game can only be activated 3 times before you have to call the support. At least you can do an offline export of the registration to get the game running on computers without being online with the computer. And you don't need the disc in drive which is a major plus.

But speaking of piracy again, I think DRM is practically a magnet for peoples turning to the dark side! In case of Anno 1404, I will wait for the game to become a budget title and still use a crack then. I won't install a Rootkit from the publisher on my computer! Got my first Blue Screen on Vista during the installation of the demo yesterday. This was the first time since I installed Vista over a year ago. I blame the installation of the DRM Tages driver and the f****ng Rootkit to be the course. So count me out on that one!

It is not piracy that turn down software sells, it is the missing service to the legal customer who gets punished and harassed by expensive copy protection *** that does not prevent from the crackers releasing pirate copies of the game.

---

"*** the World and drop the Neutron!"

Glen Watts1:

Pirating on principle? Hehehe. And people wonder why so many developers are walking away from PC dev these days...

As for me, I'm mostly playing Ghostbusters at the moment. Probably pick up Overlord 2 next week as well.

There never was many big PC developers to start with, they're either assimilated into another company, which then consumes and destroys them, or they simply don't make very many games.

Mind you pirating certainly doesn't help none, but that's like leaving banking because a few people rob your bank, thousands of times, two weeks before you open it.

Yesterday because my friend was here, we played some fighting games, which I have absolutely no experience or skill with, but I still happened to occassionally get a punch in.

Then we played hide the rainbow roll, and NWN2, which I don't like, because it feels like I'm playing World of Warcraft again.

---

I only wrote this because I hate you.

quaseman:

I am playing another brilliant demo, Anno 1404.

Looks really , going to buy a new computer in the beginning of the new month (my current computer is on the edge of killing itself i'm afraid. )and will try it out. Looks like something i have missed for some time.

Economy and city builder games used to be some of my favorit games but there havent been many released the last couple of years.

Now if only they would release a real sim city game again.

---

I've been playing a lot of Fallout 3 (been messing around with the GECK modding tool A TON!), and been playing a littl eTeam Fortress 2 here and there. I still need to beat Mirror's Edge and the Witcher. But damn Fallout 3 has me hooked right now.

---

Glen Watts1:

Pirating on principle? Hehehe. And people wonder why so many developers are walking away from PC dev these days...

As for me, I'm mostly playing Ghostbusters at the moment. Probably pick up Overlord 2 next week as well.

Killing the gaming industry one game at a time .

But no I was mostly kidding, like I said my computer would blow up if I put anythink better then Doom on it, Its actually sort of embaracing lol.

Ive been playing The Punisher lately. The game for the Xbox lol, I know is alittle old but I still find it fun, sure its not 10/10 gameplay but its simple fun, some of the gruesome kills you can preform make me chuckle alot or go AwSoMe, which I should probably see my doctor about lol. Also Thomas Jane did a pritty job as voicing The Punisher, But thankfully the Punsher looks nothing like Thomas Jane in this game and he actually looks extremely bad assed. Any ways its one of those few games that I can play over and over again and Ive deemed enough not to throw away.

---

"IrishMorn"
If Adon and Sagat step in....ah, what the hell, I'll get drunk and join in on that one.

Call of Juarez : Bound in blood. Liking it a lot, which is odd as it's a very linear shooter which I'm normally not that in to. I guess the 'feel' of the whole game goes a long way to making this work though, and god knows it's refreshing to play an FPS that's not either A-Filled with Nazis, or B-High Tech gun porn. Neither of which I care in the slightest about.
So yeah, the Old West setting does a lot to breathe life into this, and it's got to be said they're really captured the feel of the stylised west in Leone movies. Apart from the great acting work and really quite stellar production values, the story and missions are always appropriate and, more importantly, a lot of fun
Looks absolutely stunning as well btw. Well, on PC at any rate, although I understand the console ones look the biz as well. Deferred Rendering engine by the looks of it (which I'm pleased to see more games using these days), so the lighting it really quite excellent. But the whole thing just drips with detail. Make no mistake - this is one of the best looking games ever made. Surprisingly forgiving on graphics cards as well - it'll run silky smooth on my rather mid-range 9800GTX+ card at 1920x1080. I suspect this is because the Deferred Rendering offloads a a fair amount of the donkey work onto the CPU though (that said, I don't code games so that's a bit of a guess. Go figure...)

Bottom line is I really like this. It's a tightly written, fun game that tells a cracking western story with some surprisingly human characters. OK, so the setting is a cliche as old as the hills, but compared to the endless stream of Space/WWII/Near Future Modern War pap that's been force-fed through the shooter genre, this is a breath of fresh air.



EDIT - Oh, also had some time off recently so I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 2. This is actually the first time I've played this - I missed out on a lot of the whole PS2 thing as I thought the system was a bit rubbish and didn't buy one until after it was less than £100. Anyway. Even 8 years after it's release MGS2 is very, very . Strangely, some of the exteriors are striking me as looking great, despite the rather shoddy resolution etc (although smoothed out on my PS3, I suppose). The power of art design i suppose. I've really no idea what all the whining about Raiden was about from fans - I think the central conceit of playing the newbie with snake in the background works rather well...

---

I'm just at the start of Act 2 in Jaurez which is where it really starts to pick up (or so I've been told), but I've got 'real world' stuff I need to do so it's going to have to wait.

I've a real soft spot for old west (won't say western as that leads to confusion) games, there really aren't enough of them and of those that do appear most are kinda crap.  What I really want is an open world old west rpg, it just lends itself to it - the lone gunman wandering from town to town.