Here are a few shots of my Ranger and Commando. I am only lvl 15 but have been away over xmas so not played for about a week. Not sure which one i prefer yet but both are pretty good to play. Unfortunately i seem to be the only Euro player on GT or even OO so not done much in the way of guild or group stuff not that there is a shortage of stuff to do solo.

Dark Star One i really enjoyed, well worth $10 imo.

Depth of Field off may help this, seems the most popular solution on the forums.

Need a small bit of help.

I have created an account, got my user name and also my forum name, problem is i can't log into the forums or the support pages.

If i visit the website from my recieved email my user name and password work and i can adjust my account management but i can't access the forums or support it asks me to log in. If i use my bookmark to visit the website i can't even log in using any of my details even to do account management yet i can play online as my details work fine but no way of even visiting the forums to ask about my problems so anyone have any ideas?

I mostly plan to play this solo, is it still worth playing it online rather than offline as it seems more likely that patches and fixes will filter through online much quicker than offline?

The online game will definitely be patched quicker than the SP one. And keep in mind that you have NO multiplayer options period if you go SP, so if you're at all interested in playing MP at any time, go play on the MP game.

Yeah, there's a slight bit of lag, but it really doesn't affect much.

And yes, the quirky banter (especially the insane fool at the beginning hub) has been removed. I thought it was an immersion killer anyway, so I'm glad it's gone.

OK thanks for that, will do multi think,

So far i have tried Guardian and Marksman and prefer Marksman atm but not too far in.

I mostly plan to play this solo, is it still worth playing it online rather than offline as it seems more likely that patches and fixes will filter through online much quicker than offline?

Got Witcher last week(UK release)

Getting Hellgate London this weel.

Reemul, can you comment on how extensive/necessary the UK manual is?  I preordered through Gogamer but they've delayed my order until the end of this week and it looks like the UK version can be bought through digital distribution now so I might just go ahead and go that route if the manual isn't that important. 

When you install the game it installs a PDF version of the manual as well, so i assume you can access that rather than need a paper version, also if not i can always supply the pdf version to anyone that needs it. It isn't a must have but it's not a bad manual weighing in at 80 pages long.

Yeah got the hotfix and made no difference. It seems on the offical forums it's only Vista that has the issues we are seeing. I have had Vista for a while now and had absolutely no issues with any games up till now. Very frustrating this morning i played for 30 minutes and had 5 crashes. I even ran full defrag , virus scan, played with Nod32 turned off, ran CCleaner etc and recleaned my system up. From the offical forums it seems to be a memory issue but for me crashes at random for lots of different things rather than one or 2 things over and over.

jersoc, I don't think he was attacking how easy the game is, just the apparent simplicity of it's gameplay and similarity to other rhythm games. 

True but he's way off base either way. The controller is the game really, this game and all the other versions would never have sold well if you had to use a normal controller.

Reviews  from Europe

Joystick review
9/10 + Megastar award
“Forget everything you know about RPG’s. Intense and deep…The Witcher is the new reference for RPG’s”

PC Jeux review
90% + ‘Hit PC Jeux’ award

A couple of my thoughts are below, posted elsewhere and copied over because i am feeling lazy.

I picked it up today(released in the uk already). Patched it to version 1.1 but i'm still getting random crashes and with the long load times it is a bit of a pain in the ass.

Loving the game though, looks good, i like the mechanic behind it and the storyline is enjoyable. I also like the art, Geralt and his companions actually look like hard bastards that would kick yours and anyone else's ass rather than a wimp with a sword who would faint at the site of blood. I also like the CGI cut scenes and freely admit to watching the intro a fair few times as well.

The gameplay is good, the fight mechanic is different, click once to start attacking then you need to time your click to increase the damage and do more hits. I love the finishing moves, from choppping them across the middle to decapatation. Not gone on to the magic side of it too much yet as normally i prefer just hitting stuff with a big sword.

Graphically it looks good on high setting and seems to run really well. Th espeech and vocies are fine, nothing cringe worthy yet either.

Personally i'm loving this, hence getting up at 8am to post and play a bit on a sunday morning

I would recommended it highly apart from the never ending crashes that Vista seems to give. On the latest patch with drivers and all the things recommended fixes and still crashes every 15 mins or so which = constant saving. Hopefully they will sort something out soon

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008(PC)
The Witcher(PC)
Crysis(PC)
Hellgate London(PC)
Mass Effect(360)
Assasin's Creed(360)
Kane and Lynch(360)
Unreal Tournament 3(PC)
Jericho(PC)
Gears of War(PC)

Definitely getting Football Manager 2008 released on Friday 19th in the UK.

Well i finished the 1st season of my career on easy level. Went from ranked 72 to ranked 36 so moved the skill level to medium. Add to that playing the higher level tournaments and at times i'm really struggling. Finished a few 5th's as well as 4th's and sometimes never get anywhere near winning.

I have 175k Kudos so am about to buy the Ferrari pack for the best 4 Ferraris which may help me do better. Definitely enjoying playing it but not too keen on the motorbikes yet.

Also sometimes the graphics look great an dother times they look pretty poor depending on which cars you use.

Well i have to admit i am on easy as i suck big style as my time shows :O)

never thought to restart though, that was a good idea.

Yep i've had mine since June last year with no issues at all.

Rodeo is my favourite


i will say this,the bikes i didnt think i would like,but it most races,using a bike is a lot better than using a car,some races when you want to overtake someone,in a car you get stuck on their ass...where as a bike you can easily overtake


has anyone done that looooong track in the snow yet?,you use a 1950s racing car...hard track,but good for getting off some achievements(the 3 x 500 kudos star one,and the 9000 a race kudos one )

I just did the Nurburgring one, 10.30secs for 1 lap in the snow in an old 1950's sports car. TBH i really struggled, did it in 10.28secs with about 300kudos  let alone doing anything special 

I picked this up yesterday. Enjoying it so far.

Not keen on the menu and interface at all, PGR3's was much better. I much prefer top to bottom menus than side scrolling ones and there is lots of clicking through to actually getting to where you want to go. Also not keen on the way you buy car packs or helmet packs etc with Kudos, i'd rather just buy stuff with Kudos rather than packs, begrudge paying x amount of Kudos for a pack that has only 1 car or bike i want out of the 5 or so in there.

I don't mind the new structured way of getting through the game, i'm ranked 59th already after doing upto the 1st major championship and winning it. Graphically it's great, the weather changes are nice and the tracks themselves are pretty good. Also the arcade mode is a nice change from the career mode. Normally i don't bother with arcade mode but it's worth playing for a change.

All in all a step up from PGR3 except for the menu. If any one wants a online game gimmie a shout in game(got no mic though).

So is TF2 still in beta with the release of the Orange box?

Hopefully that singing bit is the only bit in it (fingers crossed)

I visit Oo, Gt and QT3, i have about 900 posts in OO, a few here and at QT3. For me i mostly just like to read the topics and enjoy the prose, If there is anything i feel is worth saying i'll say it but that doesn't seem to be too often.

I also admit to not  visiting any of the front pages of the sites, i visit bluesnews for my gaming info, gameranking for a breakdown of reviews.

I know people say they don't have time for more than 1 forum but i find there isn't that many topics in each forum and 20 or 30 mins is enough for me to visit all the sites.

Also gotta say i enjoy all 3 sites, have no favourites so long live em all 

yeah where is sensi, been wanting this more than anything else.

Nothing really major, looks good, plays well. personally i'd like them to give it 18-24 months before the next one and really go for some decent licenses and think about adding some new stuff in. It seems to have almost turned into a EA thing, a small upgrade here and there rather than anything innovative and release it yearly.

http://www.sigames.com/static/fm2008/index.html

The demo is available for the new version of Fm2008 which is due October 26th(hopefully). Us, Eu and SA versions available, not had a chance to try it yet.

Well PES08 will probably be my choice of the 2, just need it to have the same license deals as Fifa and it would be perfect.

How'd you get PES08?

The demo is out in europe already for the 360, is it not available in the USA yet?

X-Files

Just tried this as well as PES08 and wasn't overly impressed compared to NHL 08, neither has the polish, high standards or finish of NHL. PES seems to still play a better game but i'm hoping the PC version is the same as the 360 version this year and will then pick that one up.

I just fired up the PS2 version today and after a few hours of play I'm about 90% sure it's one of the worst video games of hockey I've ever played. In fact it doesn't look or feel as good as last years NHL 07 for the XBox. What I'm noticing most is that the skill stick is woefully unresponsive and the physics all around seem very poor.  At first I though it might just be my lack of experience with the dual-shock controller in sports games, but my buddy that gave it to me spent sometime playing it head -to- head with me and had similar impressions. I didn't have many problems with the controls when I played PE: Winning Soccer 11 earlier this year so it can't just be my lack of PS2 experience. I'm going to give it a bit more time, but my thoughts are that if I want to play EA Canada's NHL game I'll wait until I get my 360 or just stick with 07 for the XBox.

[Edit] I forgot to mention it but skating feels completely off. I'm trying not to exaggerate, but I  swear at times it feels like the game engine is shifting the ice surface under my players skates; not good at all.

Apparently the Ps2 and PC versions suck real bad while the 360 and PS3 are classed as next gen and much better.

Do some of the above actually qualify as real cars though

Reading is a big hobby of mine, sold my collection fo 10,000 books so i could take a year out of working, start back next week.
Golf - been as low as a 7 handicap, back to 16 since my boy was born, just not had the time.
Jack - Having a kid becomes a hobby, spend more time with him, playing with him and looking after him than anything else and wouldn't change it for anything.

No freeze ups at all for me.

I used to disciplinary stuff for my company and the number of people i fired for doing stuff that they never thought would get em the sack was amazing yet stuff you would think would get you the sack would see them getting first and final warnings or something equally stupid.

Obviously no chance of getting sacked for doing that then? Sounds like they know people do that and want it stopped.

I don't have a PS3 because i can't afford the £500 ($750) for one and it also doesn't work on a PC monitor with a VGA cable an di don't have a HD TV.

I don't have a Wii because it also doesn't have a VGA cable to connect it to my PC Monitor.

When i visited the US from England and went shopping in NYC i was amazed when entering a few shops and having my bags taken away and also my bags being searched when i left. Any shop which had this policy i refused to go in after that.

in the UK that just doesn't happen. Being a retail manager for 15 years and generally this was what i was allowed to do, to detain anyone(eg stop them) for shoplifting i have to have seen them myself, no word of mouth from other people and they have to have left the building, if they haven't left proving they were going to steal it even if it's shoved up there jumper is hard to do and the police have no interest. Even then stopping them is not easy most tell you to sod off and will leave. Now if i stop someone leaving my store for any reason and lock the doors even if i have rang the police the odds are i will get into trouble for false imprisonment.

Anyways i found it a disgrace when entering the stores in the US that i was being treated as a suspected shoplifter from the off, from having to hand over my bag which may contain expensive equipment(which a thieving sales asssistant could help themselves to if i was unlucky) to being searched as a criminal when i leave. It does seem odd that lots of you seem to be happy with that happening, i do believe a large number of customers refusing to shop in these shops would stop it in the course of a week or two. Shoplifting is a major problem and the most successful solution to it is having plenty of well trained staff not searching honest customers.

I find if i have wind it seems to affect everyone in the room as well.

Sometimes with spells when you charge them up and hit the sweet spot and get a crit it hits the whole line(i think) 

Well 13 hours in and i have unlocked 2 measly achievements worth 5 each. Both were simple to get but i think killling major bosses gets you some so hopefully soon.

Yamaha R1 - 191mph (Motorway)

You realize that planes don't even need that kinda speed to take flight, right?  That had to have been crazy!

Just add an R1 has a 1 litre engine and weighs about 350lb, puts out about 160bhp as well.

Aye, motorbikes are weird things especially if you don't ride em and never have. 1st gear does 85mph and it does 0-100mph in 5 secs.  Thing is they do 150mph like a car does 30mph, stable and effortlessly. The scary bit is how quickly you cover the distance and the white lines in the road become 1 long  blur. At 150mph you can get the front wheel a few feet off the ground, give it some wings and maybe it would fly