ReNo

Unfortunate timing indeed! Glad its all sorted out now though, I was just starting to get edgy. Hope you had a good holiday Thrik

Didn't Steam add paypal support? At the very least you should be able to use your card through paypal and get the game that way, but I don't know if you already have/wish to get paypal.

Hey Aaron, nice to see you at Mapcore, welcome Just a small response to this point. Lightmaps aren't actually all that demanding at all on the engine, at least not in terms of processing power. They will increase your filesize significantly if you increase the resolution (ie. use lower lightmap values), and they'll increase compile time significantly too, but they won't have a particularly noteworthy effect on in-game performance unless you're really going overboard with your texture memory. Also, I'd suggest sticking to powers of 2 for your lightmap scales - 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc... - as opposed to using numbers like 5 or 6. Means your lightmaps will align better with your brushwork and whatnot, provided you do the same with your brushwork (and you should!). Anyway, I've yet to take a look at the map in-game but I was really impressed with the screenshots seeing as it's your first Source map. Onwards and upwards, looking forward to seeing what you do next

Well done man, you've made it through Now the *fun* part - job hunting

Anybody else pick this up on Steam? For those who haven't heard of it, it's a great little Trial Biking game. Its got 3D graphics (which look great for what they are) but the gameplay all plays out on a 2D plane. You've only 4 buttons - Accelerate, Brake, Lean Forward, Lean Back - and with those you need to try and navigate your way through over 50 obstacle courses. Its hugely addictive; with its checkpointing system and instant retry its really easy to say "just one more try" and see an hour of your life disappear before you. It's our new lunch time game in the office, with 8 of us now having bought it and all joining an in-game "team" to compete against each other's times and help push Team Outerlight up the scoreboard. If anybody else has it, add me as a friend on Steam - always nice to have more times to try and beat http://www.redlynxtrials.com/

Happy birthday, hope it's been a good one mate

Looks like a mix of Crackdown and Lost Planet, and considering I'm a fan of both of those, that's a good thing

I had a shot of the demo and I'm tempted to pick up the full game. The driving physics definitely don't feel as solid as some of the competition - particularly with the 360 wheel that made it exceedingly hard to play - but they are manageable provided you think of it as a more arcade style racer than it looks. Its the presentation that really saves it. It has a great sense of speed and shooting up and down the hills of the demo's San Francisco course was really impressive and exhilarating. I'll probably wait until I see a deal on it or it drops in price before I grab it, but its got my attention.

Yay! http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=143554

I've gotta admit to being quite a Logitech fanboy when it comes to peripherals too. I've got and recommend... Logitech Z-5500 speakers: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =SP-021-LG Logitech MX Revolution mouse: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =KB-082-LG Logitech G15 Keyboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =KB-117-LG I've also got a G15 rev.1 keyboard and an MX1000 mouse at work I actually kinda prefer the MX1000 and rev.1 keyboard, but they aren't so readily available so might be kinda tricky to hunt down.

Noticed on shacknews that theres a new DoD:S update out, and it includes a new map. I was hugely taken aback to be honest - a DoD:S update wasn't something I expected from Valve - and then I noticed the name of the level; dod_palermo. Sounded a little familiar, and rightly so. Apparently it's essentially a remake of insta's Salerno! Congrats man, not sure what the circumstances were to getting the level "remixed" like this, but hopefully nothing other than awesome!

Can't say I'd heard of em, not bad though. Kinda remind me of Idlewild, who I'm rather partial to. I'm sure you've already heard Idlewild as they're pretty damn huge, but for anyone who hasn't, they're a Scottish indie rock band. The songs they've got on myspace right now aren't amongst their best, sadly, although Roseability is pretty good... http://www.myspace.com/idlewild

Somebody posted this round at work, and I think it's awesome. It's a free album download of a Hip-Hop/Bluegrass crossover, called Gangstagrass. It works remarkably well actually; well worth giving a shot. http://www.gangstagrass.com/ If you can't be bothered downloading it or just want a wee sample, there's also a myspace page... http://www.myspace.com/gangstagrass

Wow, your neighbourhood looks rough seir - hiding up on rooftops, arming yourself to the teeth when popping out for a pint of milk... Been a while since I've put a picture. Was clearing out my wardrobe back at my folks house this weekend and came across a 70's style outfit I once wore to a fancy dress party, so decided to take it out on the streets yesterday evening. Not exactly the clearest photos in the world - you wouldn't think the "good camera" was one of the reasons I bought this phone would you :roll:

Isn't that pretty common? Going strictly by my contract I shouldn't be releasing side projects either AFAIK, but they weren't bothered when I released an HL2DM map a while ago and I doubt they'd be bothered if I did something similar again. I think a lot of that kinda thing is just by-the-books legal faff that most bosses wouldn't ever actually enforce. Unless you've been hired by a real asshole company of course

I enjoyed the first one, but felt it fell short of its potential a little. Finding all the pearls and trading them in for hovercraft/other upgrades felt like it was going to go really far, but in the end the 100 or whatever it was felt like it could easily have been about 20 as later in the game they just started handing them out to you in huge groups. If they'd increased the scope a little to be more like, perhaps, a Zelda game, it woulda been awesome. Here's hoping that's what they do with this one, as having a larger world with more to explore and more side quests would make BG&E2 a clear winner IMO.

Dynasty Warriors 6 about 2 weeks ago. I don't really deserve any sympathy though.

Oooh they sound rather cool - ordered their latest album Kinda sound like a mix of Sublime and Authority Zero to me. Thanks for the suggestion Frie!

A couple of mates of mine are in a band called Taking Chase that are well worth a listen. Well, if you're into punk/rock/electro/reggae, at least! I know that sounds a little busy, but they don't tend to throw everything into a single song; they're essentially a punk rock band but they pull in elements from other genres. Their name comes from the Rx Bandits song "Taking Chase as the Serpent Slithers", so if you're an RxB fan give them a try for that reason alone They just released their debut EP a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of tracks from it are up on their myspace page... http://www.myspace.com/takingchasemusic

I think it looks awesome. I really love the "clean" style of it - the bright feel with really strong, bold colours feels so fresh compared to almost everything else out there at the moment. I'm curious as to how well the gameplay will work out, as I've a feeling it's gonna be really quite linear as opposed to free form route picking. Could still be awesome even if that is the case however! I was quite a fan of the old Xbox game Breakdown, which also featured a lot of body awareness. Although it didn't allow you all that much in the way of mobility options, it had some really neat first person set pieces like bungee jumping and, well... spewing Your AI companion was also really agile and pulled off cool moves like those seen in this game. Breakdown mainly focused on melee combat and had a pretty wide range of moves and combos - will be interested to see if this goes down the same route.

I dunno, I think there's a little clutching at straws here. The only thing I've seen of the Epic map is that small snippet from the trailer, but from that you really can't tell anything. The author of ArcticShipment is talking about the layout being ripped off, and if that is true then he certainly has an argument, but is there evidence of that? He goes on a lot about it being too much of a coincidence that both maps are set on ships with icebergs and snow around, but frankly that's a bit of a far-fetched claim. Hell, I've a level like that sat around somewhere myself, so it's hardly like it's unfeasible that somebody else would come up with the same idea. If he's got more to go on than the tiny glimpse from that trailer, and they have indeed ripped off his level, then I hope he gets the credit he deserves. To me it looks like people are getting a bit too excited over what is probably just a coincidence, however.

I saw this recently too. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't find it particularly scary. It has some jumpy moments but it didn't really leave me scared like some other horror movies manage. Worth watching if you're into horror movies though

To be honest my initial impressions ain't too good. It's still Mario Kart, it's still fun, but I've gripes. For one, the drifting feels weird to me. Maybe it's more like the DS version or something, but it doesn't feel as defined and solid as Double Dash's to me. I liked counter-steering during drifts to get boosts. Some of the new weapons I'm also not keen on - the POW thing? The icky spitting thing? Everyone in front of you getting effected just makes it another spam weapon. You'd think that the lightning cloud was enough on that front. And on that note, the lightning bolt making the whole screen go black for a couple of seconds? That just looks like a bug or a fuck up on my TV! Come to think of it, maybe it is... And when the hell are Nintendo gonna start giving games options? Seriously, no way to turn off the AI drivers in multiplayer? Granted it's pretty fun with 12 people on there, but the option to just have you and your mates would be nice. And why do I have to do 4 race championships? In Double Dash we used to go through all of the tracks and we'd know the scores and overall winner at the end. Now it resets after 4 courses with seemingly no option to change it Why does battle mode have to be in teams? Why not allow 4 people to have a free for all? Seriously, it's not hard to offer up a customise game screen is it? Doesn't need to be mandatory, just an optional ability to change the rules a little. Also, is it just me or does it look AND run worse in split screen than Double Dash did? I'll still play it, and I'll still enjoy it, and maybe I'll learn to love it like I did Double Dash. But for now I'm kinda disappointed. *sigh*

I put in a preorder for one at Gamestation today. I normally prefer to go with Game/Gameplay/Play as they seem more reliable with fast shipping (Game always gets you things the day before, it's brilliant), but like you said they seem to have run out

My 360 is currently en route back from Microsoft, according to the support page. Hopefully that means it'll be arriving tomorrow! Currently playing through Lost Odyssey during my lunch breaks on the office 360 - the game REEEEEALLY isn't designed for playing in short bursts tho