er.. 360 .. 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Peggle get my votes for best downloadable games (original or not) for the system. 

yer. the 260 was dope. Those was the days! 

I want a 540. Or better yet, 720! 

Missus treated me to Forza 3 yesterday.

We've just got back from holiday, and I had some cash left, so I treated myself to a new Xbox driving wheel. It's prettyfuckingawesome, really :) 

sweet.. my 360 is already shipped.. 

DJ Hero. That is all. 

Zenmor, I haven't checked the small print but I expect I am under NDA until the day I die. :(

So, I can't categorically state if there will be further 'epidodes', but if there are, it is possible they will be farmed out to different Rockstar studios (á la Stories) rather than done in-house at North.

In other words, TBoGT is *possibly* the last full-fat GTAIV content. But, if you really liked the two Stories instalments; and you like the playground that is IV's Liberty City (personally I think there is so much more that can be done with it); then it's likely there'll be more GTA-fodder for you to enjoy before the likes of Red Dead Redemption, Agent, L.A. Noire, and Max Payne 3 et al come along. 

Mainevent said:

DJ Hero. That is all.

Wanna break the silence and tell us a bit about it? 

Kinda like Guitar Hero, but instead of the guitar you have the turntable. You mimic DJ actions with scratching, and cross-fading. The music is all custom made mixes of popular r&b, hip hop and dance music. The mixes were created by Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and DJ AM among others. So far my favorite game of the Music/Rhythm genre. 

It looks sorta fun and everything, but I reached the limit of what I'm prepared to spend on plastic instruments when I bought Guitar Hero. Plus it's insanely expensive over here, like everything else. 

I got the Halo Waypoint as part of the preview.
It gives avatar awards for doing stuff in Halo 3, ODST and Halo Wars.
Pretty neat if you are really, really into Halo. 

Do you have to redo the stuff, or is it retroactive? 

Miner: Dig Deep is friggen addicting. For only a buck and I think I just lost 3 hours to it. 

Forza 3 is awesome
It's the first racing game where I can only drive with all of the HUD turned off so i can concentrate on the road
Loving it 

How do you turn the hud off completely? All I can find are the toggles for tyre info etc. Having no HUD sounds amazing! 

Nah. I love the bumper/first person car view, but I need me some HUD. I don't have 3 yet (still, dammit!), but on 2, I loved having the damage indicator up. Even more so on endurance races, since it showed when your tires started to wear. 

I think I'd have it on if I'm doing an endurance race, but for normal races it'd be cool having it turned off. Hmm. 

turkboy said:

How do you turn the hud off completely? All I can find are the toggles for tyre info etc. Having no HUD sounds amazing!

Right before you start a race there is an option HUD

I put camera in cockpit and set everything else as off except for mirror

Your damage still pops up when you bump into something though haven't found a way to get that off. 

Sweet, I think that's going to really add to the immersion. Thanks man! 

Fucking love forza 3 so far... Not turned manual clutch on yet, sounds pretty fidly to me. Caning the seasons though. Seem to win a lot on hard... 

I keep it on medium with the manual/clutch shifting, lines off, etc.

Of course I also usually stay outside of the cockpit because I can't really see shit in there. 

mr_green said:

Do you have to redo the stuff, or is it retroactive?

retroactive. it scans all your games and sees what achievements you have and gives you stuff. 

The approach to manual shifting was the one thing that I thought was especially cool about Forza 3; tried it on a supervisor's setup at work.

The driving lines look like complete shit though; good thing I usually turn then off first thing.

Bottom line, I think it's too easy. It strikes me as a driving game, and not a sim at all. Only the weak would jump ship to Forza from GT! 

Or rather, jump ship from GT to Forza. WEAKLINGS, be INCENSED!! 

You've tried it on the hard difficulty with every assist off and the HUD off as well, and you think it's still easier than Gran Turismo?

Have you ever played Gran Turismo? 

Get that GT shit outta here.

Take it to the general VG thread if anything. 

Haha! 

For the record, my brief encounter with the Forza 3 demo was on what advertised itself to be the hardest settings, and yes, it was easier than GT standard. That is all.

Except, also for the record, I had as much fun checking out aforementioned Forza demo as I ever have playing GT. 

Forza is the first game I feel guilty for telling my neighbor to buy based on the overwhelming, and under deserved, attention it has received here. I hope he gets decent trade in credit for that POS 

The last GT game I played was 4 (which is also the newest full version, so I'm not sure of this "standard" you're droning on about), and I played with manual transmission, first person view, no assists and it was pretty damn easy. I play Forza with no assists and I drive around in circles.

If you want to see a racing game that's not a sim but pretends to be, pop Need for Speed Shift in. Play that for more than 5 minutes and tell me what you think. 

And also, POS? Did this thread get invaded by Sony? Go play in the road or something.

See how well real cars handle when they run you over. 

invaded by Sony? Sony would be well served to promote Forza. 

Haha, droning on, you're kind of funny. Standard = default settings, since you indicated that was too hard for you to deduce.

Why do you have to try and be a big man when talking about video games? Actually, keep it up. It's entertaining. 

It's just annoying as hell. Unprovoked, out of nowhere: "hey let's bash a game for no reason!"

And it's clear that my suspicions were correct. So you two can talk back and forth, I'm out. 

I don't care for driving games but I did enjoy Forza more than any of the GT series. 

Let me try and bypass your fanboyvision.

I've played the demo. The manual shift is cool. The driving lines look like shit, but that doesn't really matter to me. I find it more eminently enjoyable to play than GT.

I think *hardcore*, prior fans of GT might perhaps appreciate that it is harder to race a perfect race in GT than in Forza.

Even so, don't let brand names get in the way of your flying spittle. And excuse me, I must retire for I have lunch with the finance minister in less than nine hours. 

Bro, there are no driving lines on the hardest settings.

Ergo, your experience, and more importantly your interpretation of it, are flawed. 

Yeah, the lines in Forza are shit. But I've never seen any lines in 3 because I turned them all off.

And there's no way you managed to run a decent lap in Forza with the ABS off on any circuit where you have to brake.

That said, I like both games. Forza 3 is much better than GT4, but GT5 could eclipse it. If it ever gets released. We'll see. For now, Forza is king. 

Incorrect, although I can't blame you for thinking so. I saw the driving lines when my boss played it - observing and not playing is really the best time to form an opinion on something so largely based in aesthetics. That's really the most trivial of comparisons between the two, though.

But what more can I say? I already said I thought Forza was more fun. I have played a good deal more GT5:Prologue, though, and I'm confident that it's more troublesome.

Admittedly however, like Minion Chaos I'm not a massive racer fan. The last full-price full-on racing game I purchased was Episode 1 Racer, I think. 

Yeah, turning off the ABS doesn't even really make the game more realistic.

Those guys aren't out there in '85 civics pumping their brakes because
they didn't come with ABS. They've got some aides out there on the
course to make the driving a little more manageable at such high speeds. 

My previous was @19,338. I don't dispute that Forza is king... not when Polyphony Digital can't even muster a full release to compete with it. I think they're probably guilty of getting too complacent. 

But turning the ABS off and learning to brake that way will make you a smoother driver, and smoother is faster, so... 

Forza sucks, moving on. Modern Warfare 2 is coming out this Tuesday I think. 

MODERN WARFARE 2!!!!!!! Woohoo! I can't fucking wait! And Dragon Age comes out real soon too. Good shit. 

Forza sucks, moving on. Modern Warfare 2 is coming out this Tuesday I think.

the 11th 

10th actually. Probably going to have a bunch of midnight releases too. 

I like to call it Snore of Duty, Modern Snorefare 2, to watch all the fans start foaming at the mouth with rage. I also like saying stuff like "it was OK, but didn't blow me away" to see of any of the fans can control themselves. 

It doesn't live to the standard of Goldeneye standards. Standard. It's a POS return it. 

MW2 might be the first call of duty title I actually buy.