around this time, maybe should've mentioned E3 in the title as well.

GTA IV (yes, I'm behind the times), Lord of Ultima.

GTA IV sucks. Lord of Ultima is interesting, but not sure it's my thing. WIll stick it out for a bit to see what happens.

E3 should be great this year.

Looking forward to what the name change with EA's NBA titles will bring.

Playing Red Dead, matching up online is rather difficult. Managed to find one player (once) and shot him dead by accident so he left. Never found another player online again.

love this new thread smell!

playing red dead too. loving it.

i'm ps3, btw, and i'd like to say how much this new generation of gaming is shitting me. I don't have as much free time on my hands to play games as i used to so it shits me to no end when i put in a game i'm hanging to play, like red dead redemption, and i have to update my system then load in a bunch of trophy information and all this other bullshit i'm not interested in. it's not that long ago that you could put a disc in a console and be playing a new game within 2 mins. what happened to those days? sorry about the rant.

Has anybody created a park on Skate 3 yet?

couldn't stand skate 2 so no.

my little diatribe aside i do like playing buzz on the internet

Still on Dragon Age and Torchlight over here. Gotta love replay value.

I'm playing Portal, InFamous and FFXIII at the moment. Good times.

I've gone backwards. Playing The Operative: No One Lives Forever on PC. OLD but still kinda fun. Gotta love $2 Vinnies finds.

Looking forward to heading home and hunting armadillo's, breaking horses in and getting myself into duels with douches who I shoot 12 times before they even pull their gun out of their pocket.

so I'm 26 hours into FFXIII now (playing it slowly because of uni commitments, but uni is over now..) and it has finally opened up into a free roaming game. It looks spectacular, and is actually quite a lot of fun. I just wish the characters didnt suck so much, and the story wasnt so confusing.

What part are you up to k2? I gave up in some machine like area or more specifically where the black dude and the aussie girl have to press four buttons to get through a door. Much more past that? I'm considering selling it.

im up to Gran Pulse - chapter 11 I think. I got stuck for ages on this boss guy Cid Raines. I seriously dies 10 times trying to kill the fucker, but finally did it after changing many battle team combos and paradigms. Seriously, I feel like the game just started. At least I can grind for a bit now and get my levels and weapons up. I'm doing missions at the moment too.

So the true FF game is yet to come still? I've all but hated every second of it so far. So restricted.

playing half life 2 ep 2 on osx right now, it's awesome

Red Dead and Mirrors Edge, both on Xbox 360.

In between these I'm in training for my Sonic The Hedgehog Marathon for Charity

If you guess how long it will take me to beat Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Sonic and Knuckles on Mega Drive in one sitting you will win a Sonic Prize pack and a $50 donation to a charity of your choice. No shit.

If anyone wants to host this at their venue it would be much appreciated. Otherwise it's my lounge room.

RDR - just saw a bloke ahead of me on a dirt track get off his horse and run into the field and stop. I followed him to see what he was doing. He was taking a piss on a rock. Yellow stream and all. Then when he's done he gets back on his horse and continues about his way.

This game is amazing.

haha. if you see that in your city you'd be disgusted. yet now they're putting it in games y'all loving it.

haha. if you see that in your city you'd be disgusted. yet now they're putting it in games y'all loving it.

That just put an image in my head of happycow running up to some guy pissing in the street, watching intently, then saying ''this is amazing, there's a yellow stream and everything''.

hahaha!

i spontaneously bought the mass effect trilogy for 360 on the weekend. my decision was based entirely on its reputation. i've tried playing it a couple of times but i'm terrible at it and it's very discouraging. should i absolutely stick with it?

Are you starting on ME1?

ME1 isn't brilliant - I ignored it and jumped straight to ME2 - which is awesome.

yeah, ME1. i googled to see if playing ME1 was essential and found a bunch of comments saying it was. now i suspect that's just a fanboy opinion. i will definitly abandon ME1 and try ME2 if i continue to struggle.

i need a new game to get into, I think JB had ME3 for 40 bucks

thinking of going for Uncharted, probably asked this before, can you jump in on this series anywhere? are any duds?

the new metro game looks pretty slick, from what i've seen. i guess it's the same dilemma though: do you play metro 2033 first to be completist or jump right in with metro last light?

Free steam codes for penny arcade rpg vol 3 here

thinking of going for Uncharted, probably asked this before, can you jump in on this series anywhere? are any duds?

I just played Uncharted 2 without playing any other int he series and really enjoyed it. Recommended.

Well, looks like console gaming as we know it is dead. Bring on lounge room / television based Steam gaming!

Seriously, the Xbox One announcement was laughably terrible. This is a machine seemingly designed by accountants. I've used an Xbox as my primary gaming machine for the past decade or so, I won't be getting an Xbox One. Microsoft are taking away all the advantages of console gaming and turning the machine into a US cable provider / Orwellian surveillance system.

I really don't get who the target market is here. They're obviously fine with pissing off the core gaming demographic in order to gain a wider mainstream appeal, but who exactly is this machine supposed to appeal to if not gamers? Is it trying to replace cable TV? I don't understand.

Lots of info at Kotaku: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-xbox-one/

Nah, that's too much info:

This youtube has everything you really need to know in 1 minute and 41 seconds

Eh console gaming has been dead for a few years and it wasn't netflix or facebook integration that did it.. Yearly rehashes that change nothing but maps and team squads making up the most popular and bought titles, boring cut scene filled press x to win games, casualised dumbed down sequels, overpriced unfinished indie games, those kinect and move dancing games.

I'm quite excited because now customers will be expecting more from a game that's on a new console. Developers will need to get their shit together if they want to succeed in the new generation.

By console gaming being ''dead as we know it'', I'm talking more about the unique way consoles gaming differentiates itself from PC based gaming.

I'm specifically referring to:

• Not being able to buy a second hand game without paying extra fees.
• Not being able to loan games to mates.
• Not being able to use the console without a regular internet connection.
• No backwards compatibility (so this is more a recent console thing, but it was an evolution and now it's being taken away. I collect and still play old games, I want my new console to play my old games like the last few have)
• Games being installed on the hard drive a requirement.

This sounds like PC gaming and the PC already does that way better. You can now easily connect your PC to your TV and use a 360 controller and use great, cheap services like Steam and GOG at a fraction of what consoles charge for games (with services like Steam and GOG). What then, becomes the purpose of having a dedicated home console? TV? TV already does that better. Halo TV series by Steven Spielberg? Pft!

While I agree with what you're saying about the direction games have headed, broadly speaking, there are still enough great games like Dark Souls, Borderlands, Portal, GTA etc, that make console gaming (current gen) an enjoyable thing for me. If MS take away the unique selling points of console over PC I no longer have a reason to own a console.

i've got a few PS3 games floating around, looking to trade/swap if anyone is interested

Resistance 2
Demon Souls
LA Noire
Red Dead Redemption
Assassins Creed 3
Bio Shock

that is an amazing video, anonymous.

don't know if i've made it clear in this thread but i'm ready to stick with a ps3 and keep replacing it with same from now on. there's HEAPS of games i never played that will still be new for me when i get time to play ANY games. it's also a BLURAY player which is the format i'm getting behind.

from now on i just have to cherry pick the inevitable chuckout bins of ps3 games and blu rays. spending $99 on a new game can get fucked! (But i'll probably get new GTA asap)

By console gaming being ''dead as we know it'', I'm talking more about the unique way consoles gaming differentiates itself from PC based gaming.

Agree with some of what you're saying Happycow, but for me, the key differentiator consoles still have over PC is that one size fits all in terms of gaming experience. No need to upgrade video cards/RAM/CPU to keep up with min. requirements for Crysis 7 (not that I play FPS all that much, but you get what I mean).

• Secondhand fee is an issue, obviously.
• Loaning games can be kinda worked around with swapping profiles, but it's bit of a stop-gap.
• Dunno about you but most of my 360-playing mates have internet connections now. I use mine to stream video more than for games.
• Backwards compatibility is an issue, but that's why I bought a Wii - so I can still play retro titles and previous Zeldas.

So yeah, there are definite issues here, but keep in mind gamers are not the target market anymore.

don't know if i've made it clear in this thread but i'm ready to stick with a ps3 and keep replacing it with same from now on. there's HEAPS of games i never played that will still be new for me when i get time to play ANY games. it's also a BLURAY player which is the format i'm getting behind.

When you get sick of that, the PS2 is an absolute GOLDMINE of brilliant games.

Agree with some of what you're saying Happycow, but for me, the key differentiator consoles still have over PC is that one size fits all in terms of gaming experience. No need to upgrade video cards/RAM/CPU to keep up with min. requirements for Crysis 7 (not that I play FPS all that much, but you get what I mean).

Here is my prediction for this year: Apple TV / Steam box.

And that my friends, will be the death of the American game console.

When you get sick of that, the PS2 is an absolute GOLDMINE of brilliant games.

Too true, mon frere. I got a PS2 a few years ago and, through eBay, gradually acquired a mountain of games, most of them great. I've still got about 15 that I've either yet to finish or haven't even played. Probably the best selection of games that any console's ever had.

X-Box One is hopefully a failure. I'm absolutely sick to fuck of the gaming industry trying to penalise customers for buying second-hand. Either price things reasonably or fuck off. Things like Steam and GOG.com (while not perfect) will make the greediest in the industry seem like fools in the long-run. ''What's that? You want me to pay a fee for the privilige of playing a second-hand game? Nah, think I'll just grab System Shock 2 for $5 and politely advise you to go fuck yerself.''

When you get sick of that, the PS2 is an absolute GOLDMINE of brilliant games

Do they still work second hand though? DVDs are notorious for screwing up fresh out of the box.

I have the cheapest computer I could buy from MSY with not even a 3D card except for the basic on-board capacity. Not sure if I can play games on it. Might need to upgrade soon as it keeps overheating if I leave the computer on too long.