Name: Jeremy Jastrzab

Level: Administrator

Re: Staff Changes - September 2010 (3 hours ago)

Nah, it was more like this:

Re: Staff Changes - September 2010 (3 hours ago)

That's so James can take care of all your tech problems

Staff Changes - September 2010 (3 hours ago)

Hello everyone,

We’ve got some staff addition and change announcements to make.

First of all, Boss James is a really busy guy these days. And we’ve realised that James Varoutsos is actually much better at writing programming code than actual articles. So, one James is switching with another in to take care of all technical PALGN matters. As such, James V has been elevated to admin in order to take care of such matters. We’ll have a 24 hour hotline set up for this soon.

Secondly, I’d like to announce that we have a new staff member: Michael McEnally, formerly known as the forum member - Macka. He’s one of the younger guys around and is a Sydney-sider.

Congratulations to both James and Michael.

Re: Hands-On with Kinect (4 hours ago)

The reason this was a problem was that we were playing at a cocktail party and at any given time there would have been dozens of drunks sprawling into the area picked up by the camera. One person walking behind you at home probably won't do much to it.

Also, you simply walked out of the camera's view in the middle of a game to pause it.

Re: Hands-On with Kinect (1 day ago)

It would have to do with the position of the camera, not the TV. However, the camera is meant to track where you are, so similar to choosing whether you have the wii sensor bar above or below the tv. It's supposed to adapt.

That's a bit unfair. The RRP of the Wii is $299, and in order to play with others, you need to spend another $100 to get a Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Kinect essentially costs as much as one Wii Remote and Nunchuck, as you're getting Kinect Adventures packaged as well.

At the events that I've been at, the casuals LOVED what they saw. You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. The potential that I see in it is that it will co-exist with 'real' games, rather than make up the majority like on the Wii.

In my view, I had more fun playing Kinect games than Wii games. Playing sports like skiing, soccer, football were much more enjoyable because they worked remarkably well. I could see the interface working with RTS and RPG titles. But then again, if you want shooters and action games and the like, I don't see a practical application yet.

Wholeheartedly agree. It works better than the Wii (since no one uses Motion Plus) and at least as good as Move. I've played all three and seen all three being played by casuals.

Hands-On with Kinect (1 day ago)

WiiWare: Pearl Harbor Trilogy - 1941: Red Sun Rising Review (2 days ago)

Re: Vanquish - Platinum/Shinji Mikami's next title (5 days ago)

FINALLY! Someone else understands the true origins of this game!

Yes sir, are classy PN03 was defintiely underrated, and I regret selling my copy Hopefully I'll reacquire it in the near future...

For me, Gears of War + PN03 = Vanquish. Any other comparisons are null and void to me.

Re: Your newest purchase (1 week ago)

^I used it for the first time coming back from LA. It was AMAZING!!!

Re: Which was the last game you finished? (1 week ago)

But, did you only get the first ending, or have you played to get the other three? Protip: the second play through gives you a whole new perspective

Re: Post your Pix (1 week ago)

Hi there! Please be sending pics. K thx bai.

Re: What really ticks you off? (1 week ago)

@Island_wolf: Programming is a very, very tough job. Especially when you're starting out, where you're treated like a commodity and it seems like you're not getting anywhere. Though this is the case with a lot of 'office' jobs, especially in large private sector firms. I'm sure you know people who do ridiculous hours at the 'Big Four' accounting firms. Then when you work in the public sector, you've got a whole lot of bureaucratic nonsense to deal with.

In any case, there is no easy way with these things. It can be very tough and it will at times push you to the edge. One thing that I would recommend is to work on your sleep patterns. Only freaks can get away with 4 hours of regular sleep. I used to have a similar problem where I couldn't get to sleep for hours, but I found that physical activity and going before midnight helped to no end. Yes yes, there are the arguments of not having time and being too tired, etc. but at the end you have to make a choice of what do you prefer. I chose the physical activity (up to 5 days a week in the gym, but I'm lucky that I can allow for this) and I haven't regreted it since.

Anyway, enjoy HK I've got several invites to be shown around, but I won't be able to take them up for a little while...

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (1 week ago)

Still no copy Hopefully it will arrive today...

I've got a lot of things to say about this too. But basically, a lot of the mainstream gaming 'journalism' (love the inverted commas!) is broken. No amount of innovation is ever enough. Any lack of innovation is too much. And if it's not riding the coat tails of some major franchise, it's not good enough.

/rant

Still, as far as I can tell, if you enjoyed the first Mafia, you'll enjoy this one. Now please excuse me while I find someway to kill off the next 8 hours till home time...

Re: Quick Transfer Cable Question (2 weeks ago)

All you need for transferring from the old Xbox 360 to the Xbox 360 S is the transfer cable. One end of the cable should attach to the HDD of the old, while the other end should go into the usb slot in the Xbox 360 S. The Xbox 360 S should pick this up and initiate the transfer process which is very straight forward. Using this will transfer ALL you information from the old to new, wiping the old in the process.

This is what happened when I did the transfer. Hope that helps

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (2 weeks ago)

^Exactly what I said previously.

Where would the fun of a getaway be if there was nowhere to go?

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (2 weeks ago)

I agree with Cap. This is a poor practice, and something that I actively discourage. When you are reviewing a product, ANY product, you need to concentrate with what's infront of you, not what it could have been or what you expected it to be. It's pretentious and doesn't give the read a fair idea of what to expect. I notice that a lot of IGN reviews are particularly guilty of this. Comparing to GTA is all good and well, but what does it tell you if they say 'it's bad because it's not GTA'? Why can't it be good in it's own right?

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (2 weeks ago)

How about this? A possible reason for having a sandbox, is so that you're familiar with your surroundings when you need to make a getaway? I dunno, just putting it out there.

As far as I can see, the reason that the sandbox is that it doesn't really add much to the game. So while you can visit a gunshop, the missions generally either provide you with enough weaponry, or strip you bare in the right contexts.

There also seem to be some gameplay issues, but I agree with what's mentioned above - some of the lower scores seem to be reviewing what they expected to be a different game. Something PALGN actively discourages ... /shameless plug

Re: VIP changes (2 weeks ago)

No!

OK fine... Enjoy!

Re: Mafia 2 Review (2 weeks ago)

In the interests of getting the review up on time, we only had access to the PC version. However, I should be getting the console version either today or tomorrow, so I'll post impressions in due course.

Re: Attending Tokyo Game Show 2010 (2 weeks ago)

Hey dude, send me a PM and we'll see what we can work out

F.E.A.R.3 Gamescom trailer released (3 weeks ago)

Re: Espgaluda II Black Label Review (3 weeks ago)

It's not a matter of getting the hits. It's a matter of what we do with the limited resources that we have and are provided to us.

I'm all for extending beyond the reach of the mainstream, but in our current structure, the onus is on the individual whether they want to cover such games. It takes a lot of effort and we aren't always able to go through with it. But yes, we'll do what we can.

Red Dead Redemption: Legends & Killers Review (3 weeks ago)

Re: VIP changes (3 weeks ago)

Yep, I upgraded it sometime last week. Maybe Benza doesn't want colours... Or I could have told him...

Re: Ideas for the (possible) PALGN iPhone App (3 weeks ago)

Hey all,

While we have no immediate plans to do so, if anyone will have any future interest in developing for PALGN, please send me your full name and email, so that if we do get any projects up and running, we'll have some people that we can contact first.

I'll be the only one with this information and nothing may come if it, but if you are interested, please let me know

Re: Which was the last game you finished? (3 weeks ago)

Bionic Commando - 2009 retail release

This game had some really great ideas and did a few things really well. Hampered by the usual case of 'with a bit more time and polish...'. The thing that really frustrated me though was if you completed a challenge, but died before you got to a checkpoint, you'd lose it. Given that the game is pretty tough (playthrough on Hard), it became tedious trying to do some of them and I gave up after a while.

I doubt there are many people who played it, but you may be surprised to know that Bionic Commando and the remarkably terrible Terminator Salvation had the same developer. And... it sometimes shows

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution announced (3 weeks ago)

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (3 weeks ago)

^I finished it without the patch. I remember that I gave a tip to a number of my friends that was as simple as don't accelerate around corners... Took a while but eventually it worked. Oh, and you had to be leading when you take the first corner. Hard? Yes it was. Impossible? Not so much...

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (3 weeks ago)

I'm disappointed with a lot of the talk above and prior that people shouldn't expect this to be some open-world experience, where as I'm trying to argue that it is, in a different manner.

What I said is more a vitriol to many of the other open-world titles out there, that seem to employ a philosophy of targetting the lowest common denominator and providing discoveries for the sake of discoveries, rather than dynamic and tangible rewards for discovering and playing through.

Aside from the original Mafia, the only two games that provided a similar sense of dynamic openness for me was Fable (though really, that doesn't quite count) and Red Dead Redemption. That, and the original Mafia was, and still is, my favourite open world title so I'm really looking forward to this... Even if it's not blatantly like everything else out there.

Re: Mafia II Thread - An Offer You Can't Refuse (3 weeks ago)

You'd better PM/MSN me, bitch