Posts by Greg J Preece

When you start getting into 60s and below, it generally says a game is pretty awful and it would be harsh to label these ten so unfairly

That's the point I would argue. 60% shouldn't mean "awful" to me. If all so-so games make it to 70% and above, it gets much harder to differentiate quality. It means there's a huge section of your percentage range that never gets used, if a truly dreadful title can still score, say, 50%.

It's all down to where you set the average point, IMO, and I would say that if you establish "average" at 50%, and make that clear to readers, then you can differentiate between "misses the mark", "average", "good but nothing amazing", "recommended", "excellent", etc with appropriate scores.

There are games I've thoroughly enjoyed that earn 70% on MC, and truly dreadful stuff that earns exactly the same mark*. I just think that too many reviewers hover around this upper scale. The perception within the gaming community (not the reviewer's fault by any means) is that anything below 7/10 is shit, and that really makes no sense to me. It certainly isn't that way with other media, such as films. (Jim Sterling probably makes this argument far better than I'm doing.)

*OK, OK, Metacritic arguments aside. I know a lot of reviews, especially for movie-licenced games, are *ahem* sponsored.

Re: Took long enough!

Fury 3 (cube) which is a DX GAME FROM MS dont even work today in windows 7

It doesn't? I'm pretty sure mine does (along with F! Zone which I somehow managed to track down).

Re: Why does the indusrty...

Has the last castle of maleness, the gaming industry, been ruined by feminists too ?

The last castle o-....?

Just fuck off, will you? Most men have a hard enough time convincing the opposite sex that they're not drooling neanderthals without actual drooling neanderthals turning up.

Personally, I'm tired of the gaming industry treating me like a penis with a wallet. "Play Soul Calibur V, it's got tits in it!" No thanks. Let me know when its got content in it instead.

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, or an Android phone or an Android tablet, do you really need a DS?

No, you need a PSP. I can't think of a game I've ever played on a mobile or tablet that held my attention for more than a few minutes. Even when I was trying out the "latest and greatest" at MWC tech stands, I got bored very very fast. My PSP, on the other hand, has God of War and Final Fantasy.

Re: why is the LHC being shut down later this year?

Ah, thank you chaps. I've obviously misunderstood something somewhere along the line. Glad to hear it, too.

@TeeCee - You play?

You play tag? What system? Don't say Quasar. I'll cry.

As an avid laser tag player, I welcome this upgrade to the Olympic event. Perhaps next time we can have the ability for the target to fire back, requiring some sort of...vest apparatus? And then the time after that, we could play in the dark!

One step at a time. ;-)

Re: No it wont...

Greg. Mature enough to handle it? A 13 year old who claims or believes they are mature enough to handle porn or other 'adult' oriented games is exhibiting strong levels of immaturity. A more mature 13 year old will understand that some things are unsuitable. As true now by observation of my 13 year old and his contemporaries as was long ago in my teen years.

You seem to have missed the part where my parents made the assessment, not me. I wasn't rich enough to be buying stuff at 13. They would simply ask "can Greg handle this?" If the answer was yes, then I was OK. They recognised very early on that Unreal Tournament or Carmageddon with my friends resulted in laughter, not violence. Same went for films - I wanted to watch the stuff with adult storylines rather than the stuff with tits, so they were fine with that. Mollycoddle a child too much and you're just creating a time bomb for when they turn 16/18/21/magic number.

Re: "Cue fanboys."

Well that was predictable...

Can't even slightly agree. The "added twist" you say has been added to titles that have been done to death already adds nothing in my opinion. A couple of occasional forced gimmicky sections and an infuriatingly difficult-to-use 3D system (tried it on a bus?) don't make them suddenly original games again. Perhaps they could come up with a new franchise, or new gameplay? Taking Mario World and putting it in new graphics, then in 3D, then in 3D on a big screen doesn't change anything - it's still sodding Mario World, and I've already played that to death. (Well, in 3D's case it's more Mario 3 - Mario World's inferior predecessor.)

"I can't honestly see how you can say that they're out of ideas, sure they've refreshed all the main in house franchises"

If you can't see what is wrong with that statement, there's no hope.

"and it takes the HW manufacturers tinkering with input/output capabilities to push the envelope a little."

No no no no no no no no no no. Different controllers do not make for original games. Zelda with a Wiimote is still copy-and-paste Zelda, just with worse controls. 3D Mario is still Mario, just with an added headache. You want to see actual originality, or innovation in gameplay? Wander into the indie PC market sometime. Beyond the masses of "play your music collection" or "woo retro space fighter games", you'll find a whole host of cheap, fun variety.

Re: Hubble

"This seems so unbelievable that we can "send a man to the moon" but we can't take a fu****ing picture of the damned thing. Can't we attach that 21Gb Camera to something ?"

Ummmm....you do know what distances we're talking about, right?

Re: @David Hagood

Macs have proven far more difficult to multi-partition than any Windows machine, in my experience. Windows machines these days are a doddle to me compared to something running OSX. First you have to resize the partitions using an editor that takes your inputs as mere suggestions. Then you have to deal with their non-standard bootloader (constantly), plus the hybrid partition table that becomes irritatingly necessary despite the other two operating systems both supporting EFI, and then because of the hybrid table, you have to have your partitions in the right order or Windows is screwed. Get all that set up and make sure you remember to sync the partition tables, otherwise OSX will merrily destroy your other partitions without prompting you. Gah!

Getting 3 operating systems on this 2011 MacBook Pro was....not fun. Not looking forward to a ML upgrade. Wouldn't be so bad, except my old 2007 MacBook was much easier!

Re: Store vs Store

"I assume though that he's hoping the 'year of the linux desktop' can still come ... if it didn't happen during the Vista years, it's not going to happen now."

It didn't happen primarily because of lack of 3rd party support. Wouldn't you say that Steam is a rather large name on the PC? And given that several other online game distributors already support Linux, I'd say things are looking up.

Re: Web developers use windows

"While they could be way more comfortable using Linux, these guys use win."

We do? I use Linux, and only boot the other two when required.

>If I was Blizzard, I wouldn't be asking, "When will it end?", I'd be asking, "Why the fuck do we bother?".

I've been asking Blizzard that for years!

@Nick - exactly

So precisely what I was thinking that you're worrying me slightly. Powerline gigabit or better linking high speed access points in each room. Here's hoping they have this sorted by the time I purchase my next home in a few years.

Re: People who wear Beats headphones have always baffled me anyway...

"Anyone who appreciates a wide variety of music would go for a decent make (such as Sennheiser, Bose, AKG or Beyer Dynamic) at around the same price point or higher."

THIS.

How to tell if your expensive headphones are shit: did you buy them from HMV?

The Beats range is much like the Skullcandy range. They made a set of headphones that are superior to iPod earbuds (as challenging as getting drunk), but are still ultimately pretty mediocre, and then sold them to people who don't know better, who now brand themselves audiophiles. They're no better than buying a pair with "super bass boost" written on them. You're getting a shit pair of headphones.

Re: Bad data

Clearly your neighbourhood == the whole world.

@TeeCee - Don't be a twat

So one person has concluded he's innocent without seeing the evidence, and you've concluded that he's guilty without seeing the evidence, and that makes the other person shameful, a supporter of rape, etc, etc. Don't be a twat. If anyone's closer to how the justice system actually works, it's the other guy...

Re: Interesting rant, obviously never tried it

"- Steam has weekend deals that are sometimes astounding (got L4D2 for €5, can anyone top that ?)"

In the last sale I got every GTA game ever released for PC, with all expansions, for £5. I worked it out at something like 66p per game.

"It's a tablet computer not a dedicated media player."

Uh huh. And yet its primary uses seem to revolve around being a media player. Honestly can't say I've seen anyone do anything more advanced than writing an e-mail on one.

Re: Forgot about the music!

Don't forget Cowboy Bebop!

Re: This could be my next phone

"I have an N950"

And I have jealousy. You jammy sod!