GG gamers.
This is why publishers often stick to sequels and predictably successful ideas. It's amazing enough that EA has started to try some very different things, but with them repeatedly being bitten is it likely to continue? 
At least Spore sold well.
To be fair, MetaCritic does a fairly good job of extracting choice quotes from the articles — I don't think it's done automatically, and in combination with the aggregate scores helps to provide context for what a game's like.
I do think MetaCritic encourages some contemptible behaviour in publishers, but I don't think it's the root of the problem. I think something like MetaCritic could very feasibly continue to exist and be useful, so long as:
[*][*:2smdspss]Industry regulations are put in place to stop publishers trying to manipulate such sites
[*:2smdspss]Readers are intelligent enough to actually read the choice quotes and maybe a few of the actual reviews rather than just look at the score[/list]I certainly find MetaCritic useful when I'm researching a new game as it gives me easy access to dozens of reviews, several of which I typically read in full and most of which I read the excerpts from. The score isn't perfect, but generally if a game's in the yellow bracket I treat it with extreme caution, and if it's in the green bracket I'm very open to it and will take a close look. 
Dragonball came from a TV show FYI, not a game. 
I have to say the film does look remarkably poor.
Agreed that these are some of the finest games I've played. 
I still blame all this on CrazyMac!
I blame all this on CrazyMac!
I endorse that man. 
Ouch. Condolences, Gearboxies.
Looks like there was a problem affecting some forums after the upgrade issues last week. I've fixed it now and you should be able to post JPGs again.
Quote from ErraticI'm not into Star Trek, but I think anyone should just stop and turn back whenever the name J.J. Abrams pops up on screen...
I associate the J.J. Abrams with quality, personally.
This looks like the best film of 2009.
Hah, I wasn't saying you don't have a soul. I was (somewhat in jest) referring to people who actively dislike Pixar's films — you haven't seen them so you don't know if you like them or not.
Pity you haven't watched them, Sentura. Pixar is mostly respected for its extremely good storytelling rather than its CGI, which is admittedly fantastic too. Pixar films are pretty much the epitome of modern family-friendly films, truly appealing to all ages. When it comes down to pure appeal, they're comparable to all the classic Disney films such as The Lion King — most people love them, and it's hard to actually pick any faults with them whether you like them or not.
Obviously whether or not you like them is down to you, but it's probably worth clarifying that it's the stories and not the graphics that make people fall in love with Pixar. It might be worth you simply taking a leap of faith and taking our word on the fact that if it's a Pixar film it's probably excellent. I don't think they've had one misfire yet with regards to critical and audience reception, with each film having extremely lovable characters.
With all that said, IMO anyone who doesn't like Pixar's films has to be lacking a soul.
Thanks aaron, I've looked into this and the attempted phpBB upgrade a few days ago caused it. Should now be resolved.
If anyone else notices kooky behaviour (attachments were out of commission too), let me know here.
Yeah I just caught that, it's fixed now.
God damn phpBB. It's so archaic in the way it handles theme modifications and additional features — just had to waste ages simply undoing the damage its update mechanism did. I guess part of the blame lies with me though for not having a document that lists every modification made and where. 
A new version of phpBB was released today, and after taking the forums down to upgrade them I came across several critical issues that resulted in MapCore being down for a good chunk of the day. After a significant degree of pain I think I've restored everything, but let me know if something is wrecked.
phpBB is an absolute pain to update, compounded by MapCore having a number of modifications and not being upgraded particularly cleanly in the past. As such, I'm going to leave phpBB at version 3.0.2 and at some point ASAP I'll install version 3.0.3 and re-implement all the modifications from scratch (including the new spotlight) in a way that's easier to update in future.
I imagine this'll result in at least a day of downtime, but it should ease future updates dramatically and stop these silly downtimes each time I try to update. 
Aye, he sees everyone else standing up after Bond freaks them out and chooses to stay sat down. He makes a little comment to the person next to him, and the last we see of him is when he watches Bond walk off to confront all the baddies.
Just saw and enjoyed it.
The storytelling definitely wasn't as tidy as Casino Royale's, leaving little strands either unsatisfactorily closed or not closed at all. Although the overall story arc continues from Casino Royale, the aforementioned film still felt like a very complete story and in fact I didn't assume it'd be continued in Quantum of Solace until I saw the trailers.
With Quantum of Solace, I feel like it's almost certainly going to be continued; it's one of those films where it ends and you think "FFS, they're ending it there?". But then, if they tried to cram it all into this film it wouldn't do it justice. They've kind of
set up this big story arc about a huge criminal organisation that we've only scratched the surface of (Will Mr White become the new
Blofeld?!), and I imagine they'll keep that developing for at least two more films.
However the action and everything else more than made up for any storytelling dissatisfaction and to be honest there's nothing that wrong with the storytelling — it just isn't as neat and tidy as Casino Royale's. Well worth watching.
Looks like they're pushing this pretty aggressively. I've actually seen Mirror's Edge billboards here, which is relatively uncommon for games — even the biggest ones.
Hopefully it gets the acclaim it looks like it deserves and encourages EA to continue with its support of innovation!
