[Virgil Flowers]

It's been a good year of reading so far with 156 books read, a record for me and lots to choose from. I don't read non fiction so have chosen a series and a 1 off book.

John Sandford - Virgil Flowers series. John Sandford books are about 2 characters one is the Lucas Davenport series which is now up to book 22 I think and I am reading book 22 now.

His second series of which there is 6 books is about a cop called Virgil Flowers. Only found him this year and read all 6 books and they are superb, well written, entertaining and slightly different than unusual, not so munch serial killers and sickos but more just crime and his style of investigation. Highly recommended and a big thanks to my Dad for suggesting him.


As a second I would like to suggest Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett, about someone murdering people in the Great Depression in America, superbly written with great feeling for the era and how it affects those in it as well as the victims.

It always amazes me that the are so many religions and takes on each religion with slight variations and yet religions and followers criticise each other etc as if one form of believing in this thing is better than another. A sort of my religionis real and yours is not.

My father always said religion is the cause of more death and wars than anything else. For me whatever way you look at it you can't all be right so when we die and move on there is going to be some very upset people.

Planetside 2, Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2

Picked this up for £24 on GMG just past midnight today had a 30% off code.

How are people playing this already?  Isn't it out Dec 5th or something?

Australia was today (tromorrow there) EU is tomorrow (Friday) Also Blackbeard has got his copy.

[Geralt]

Geralt from the Witcher 2 would be high on my list. I agree that Handsome jack was a great character, but I would have preferred some more interaction with him other than the audio logs for 95% of the game. Developers still don't understand how to create and utilize truly great villians.

That's a fair point, they could have found ways to get Jack on screen more, though I personally don't think it was necessary.

I really enjoyed the messages. It was like here is some recorded shit for ya as you arent worth my face to face real time until really necessary.

Geralt is also really cool, i think if i wanted to be someone from a game it would be him.

D3 was ok but really never found a reason to play it through more than once.

Tiny Tina was ace and Jack is also great.

Ask me about GOTY in a couple of weeks after I've had some time with Hitman 5: Absolution and Far Cry 3 

My other big purchases this year?

• Sleeping Dogs - Pretty good, but I suck at fighting games, so no GOTY for me
• Borderlands 2 - Also pretty good, but... well, it didn't really click for me, I guess because it felt like grinding after a while. Too much like the first one.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Great idea, but the game seemed to be not fully realized. If they had spent a few more months in development fleshing out all those features for which they had hooks but no implementation, well, it would have been better.
• Forza Horizon - This was something of a flop as far as I am concerned. You put the Forza name on the box, you'd better be putting in your "A" game. It just seemed that there wasn't as much there could have been and should have been.
• Call of Duty Black Ops II - I finally have reached the point where CoD games just don't seem interesting any more. Sure, there are different bells and whistles, but it's the same gameplay on the same tiny maps. I so miss Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising.

In total disagreement here. Forza Horizon and Borderlands 2 are my games of the year on PC and Xbox. Sleeping dogs I never managed to get in to and Xcom was ok. Blos 2 at £40 on PC is a no thanks.

Far Cry 3 for me as it's released on Friday here but not till next week in the US.

I am still playing in between bouts of BL2. Getting to the end of the career mode just need to get to the final then can concentrate on the other stuff.

Bought a Veyron and its fast but t seems weird that the fastest car is the Bugatti EB110 which is good for 275 mph +

Sonic transformed was out 16th here and it is just superb, really recommend it.

Ticket to Ride Europe is free this weekend.

iPhone version only though.

The enemy levels in the Pirate DLC on normal mode(not True Vault Hunter) were i think around level 33ish

The DLC levels to you, so it might have been 33ish for you, but if someone else hits it at level 10, it would be around that level.

Yeah I did the DLC at level 20 odd and most enemies were up to level 24, made for some tough fights but was fun.

It has just said on Facebook that the DLC release date is 20th November

Pleased with this, it should just fit in with my first playthrough nicely. Level 28 atm so should fit.

Well I have a new favourite car, the Mazda MX5 really like it, handles great, back end is slippery but holds well and is pretty nippy tuned to S700, recommend you give it a go.

Been playing this for a while and it's great. Excellent progress while in beta as well, I would recommend it inf you liked any of thre other games.

Yep I have all the consoles but still game 90% of the time on my pc. Xbox controller makes it very easy. New gen. May give them a miss this time unless something really good stands out.

I have 11 left but the last 2 I used have been worthless.

I killed bunk3r yesterday and it dropped a purple sniper rifle that fires like an smg when zoomed, it's very cool but burns through the ammo which is drum loaded.

I thought i was close to the end but it seems like there is a new zone of stuff to do. 42 hours level 28 now and enjoying it but looking forward to getting t the end for the second play through without side missions.

I think the issue is without an authenticator on a blizzard account it is not as secure as it should be. Really all online gaming needs more security not less and a simple logon and pw seems a bit weak these days.

I would stay away from the PC version, apparently it has inconsistent performance and a dodgy frame rate even on higher pc's.

That's actually not what the Giant Bomb guys had to say at all.  They said the 360 version had dodgy, inconsistent frame rate and the PC version looked much better and ran super smooth.

I still have the 360 version, so hopefully it's not too bad.

Plenty of talk on the forums re poor pc performance, it seems like there is some controller lag as well.

Doesn't seem like too much of a challenge if all the codes are going to be good till Sunday .

I won't be bothering with these, since they are only skins. I die just the same in BL2 no matter how I look. And die and die and die... sheesh, I haven't even reached the final boss!

Nah i'm like the wife and shoes, new outfit every few hours as I like to look my best  

My main in Axton he's due 2pm cet which i Gather is around 9pm Uk time. At least we get until Sunday to input them

I found the speech in Batman 2 really enhanced the game as I played Batman 1 after and the missing speech really made a difference.

Looking forward to Lego Lotr

I would stay away from the PC version, apparently it has inconsistent performance and a dodgy frame rate even on higher pc's.

I also don't like the fact it seems to. We no progression as such, most cars are available lstraight away and it's 4 races per car and move on, personally I prefer to use a few fav cars rather than all of th em, still something to pick up nearer Xmas when it gets cheaper.

Article on Eurogamer, The Making of Forza Horizon.

Excerpt:

So here it is - a remarkably insightful look into the making of Forza Horizon, covering the genesis of the game, Playground's take on the Turn 10 codebase, how the team grappled with the latency issues in dropping down to 30Hz, the challenges of the new open world, enhancements and changes made to physics, AI, and rendering - and so much more.

Yeah but it's an open world game, I just don't expect the same sort of physics and handling from those that want a hardcore setting on a track racing game. That sort of stuff probably won't appeal to the sort of person that wants an open world racer. However I feel your pain as it's not what you were hoping. NFSPD next and i'm hoping it's as loose as FH however I wouldn't say no to NFSPD Porche handling but there is more chance of it having Angry Birds and Bad Piggies in it than that, more Burnout handling incoming me thinks.

Why would you possible need 15 keys? Use some up!

So is it significant'y different playing through a second time with a character? WOrth doing vs playing with a new character type?

Pfft. Amateurs. I'm up to 22. I don't need any gear right now, having just finished the first playthrough.

From what i understand, 2nd playthrough is significantly tougher and adds some new boss fights. Think those keys will come in handy.

Level 22 and finished already, didn't you bother doing any side quests etc then? Most people seem to be level 30+ for the finish. Missing a lot of good stuff if that's the case, i've found the side quests to be of great funa nd very funny, certainly not worth skipping unless you are defintely going to do them on the second play through?

Up to 10 keys now, the time seem very friendly to the UK timezones at the moment.

Spent the last few days in London, Mainly at The Dorchester drinking $75 shots of Cognac after my company won bureau of the year award and trying not to get too drunk . Anyways someone had parked a Ferrari 458 and Lambo Aventador out the front, the Lambo was orange with black wheels, the same color as the one linked in this thread. It sure looked nice and immediately thought of Forza Horizon but I don't think he would have let me drive the same way you lot do 

New codes!


PlayStation 3 SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: K3KJT-9SBWJ-BCWKT-9BWJJ-3FRJT

Xbox 360 SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: KTWJT-6TK9W-RHFBF-WR3B3-6HT9R

PC SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: KJWT3-FXFBC-5XJJB-TTB3T-6TRCH

Thanks worked for me as well

Forza Horizon probably but BL2 is just eating my play time up atm

I have both but much prefer my PS3.  About the only exclusives on 360 I play are on Live Arcade which really limits the amount of time I spend with the system.

Same here.  It's funny because 360 used to be my choice of console, but the dashboard has progressively gotten crappier and crappier and I hate all the ads on it.  So now I switched to preferring the PS3.

I have both and prefer the 360 but play both but really the PC wins hands down.

Played the demo and really enjoyed it, my 5 year old plays Forza but isn't really in to and prefers Lego Batman (2). My youngest is 2 1/2 and shown no interest in anything my son and I play until we fired this up. Straight away he was can I play he was doing the throttle and trying to steer. I could see my wife thinking oh no here we go. His favourite colour is yellow and I reckon it's because the viper is yellow but he now asks when do we get more of it. Looks like this will be a pre order now.

Great report, i'm still early in my game but i like your play style, I have a tendency to use overwatch as much as possible but I really am a wuss when playing. The atmosphere created in the game i superb, from the way the thin men move and look to the movement of the aliens when you spot them scurrying away etc all gives a great feel to the game.

*These are buds' nicknames from a smaller forum, including one (Xavitor) from Australia I used to play co-op games of Incubation with via dial-up. He passed away from cancer in 2007, and I can't help wishing he was still here to play this. He'd love it.  

My brother in law and best friend invited me round his house a very long time ago and he had a new PC (486) and was playing X-Com on it, I had to go straight out and buy a pc (my first one) for it as well. Anyways he died of Cancer in 2007 as well, he was in his 30's. I Said to my wife last night I was thinking of him as I was playing and I just know he would have loved it.

Well XCOM was going to be my go to but Borderlands 2 just isn't letting go.

I am now level 17 and just met Tiny Tina. Really enjoying the game however I went with Axton and wish I had gone with zer0 as 90% of my time is sniping. I always seem to forget my turret so have put all my points in improving my stats and damage so far.

Great game though

Xcom PC

nor me

This is the game that keep on giving, £15 in the uk is a steal that's pretty much half price and 1/3rd of new console releases. I can't recommend this game higly enough, while I enjoyed D3 and still return to it thi is just something else.