Bobfoc

And me.

Games like Civilization often involve doing a dummy run the first time round, in which you tend to learn the ropes by making mistakes. As with most strategy games, Civ 5 requires a considerable amount of perseverance before you can truly feel comfortable with it, but once you've got the hang of it, it's as compulsive and addictive as any game out there.

They should be tied to your PSN account, yes.

I'm almost certain you will be able to download them without having a Gold subscription. Xbox Live Gold gives you access to weekly discount sales and occasionally offers early access to game demos, but standard Xbox Live Marketplace content can be bought no matter which version of Xbox Live you have.

The Portal 2 discount is even bigger if you buy a 2-pack. Here in the UK, it's £8.49, and I can only assume it's even cheaper in the US.

As if heavyweight boxing wasn't enough of a joke, these two are willing to fight in an unlicensed match. Ridiculous. And Mayweather will beat Cotto on points. Cotto's best chance is to get Mayweather up on the ropes and unload in the early rounds, but I don't think he'll be able to stop Mayweather and Floyd will come more into as the match wears on. Pretty much a spot-on prediction.

Hendry's my all-time favourite player, but I'm glad he's decided to retire. He stated in his latest interview that he's no longer enjoying himself enough to justify carrying on, and it's always depressing watching sportsmen and women performing without the passion they might once have had.

Mr. Slave was introduced in the Series 7 episode called "The Deathcamp of Tolerance," in which Mr. Garrison tried to get fired for being as outwardly homosexual as possible so that he could receive millions of dollars' worth of compensation. Claiming that "4th Graders are too old for Mr. Hat," he brought in Mr. Slave as a more effective means of showcasing his overt homosexuality. Mr. Hat did briefly reappear in "201," though, at the request of Cartman.

It's 7 and 7, as there are 14 episodes in each series. They've been splitting up each series into two separate runs for years now, and certainly much longer than over just the last two series.

People are apparently already designing their own custom box art to replace the standard cover once the game is released.

From what I've heard, Legend of Grimrock is a solid dungeon crawler that packs quite a challenge, but the story seems to quite shallow and unappealing. Whether or not you'll like it would probably depend on how attached to the old-school dungeon crawler genre.

You're probably right. Walking Dead certainly has more present-day name value than their last two titles, Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, and they supposedly sold quite well at release.

In the past, Telltale have made the first episode of some of their games available for free, but it doesn't look as though they're doing that this time. I think I'll be holding off on this one for a while as I find their games to be rather hit-and-miss.

They were the runners-up in last year's Under-21 European Championships, but I don't really know a lot about most of their players besides Xherdan Shaqiri.

It looks as though I'm now the proud owner of tickets to New Zealand vs Belarus at Coventry. Should be fun, I suppose.

Yeah, you're right. Allen actually won the World Open, which also took place in China this year.

He was also ranting on Twitter earlier in the year about how much he hated being in China during the China Open (which he ended up winning).

I'd highly recommend Harry Plinkett's film reviews. There aren't all that many of them and they're rather long, but they strike a great balance between comedy and genuinely insightful analysis. If you've got a couple of hours to kill, I'd recommend taking a look at his Star Wars Prequel reviews.

EA games are now available at GAME, meaning that this thread has (sort of) gone full-circle.

Not unless a developer happens to reveal an upcoming discount on their Twitter/official site/whatever else. The vast majority of the time, it's just a case of "wait and see". Generally, though, Sod's Law dictates that a game will go on sale just after you pay full price for it.

Somewhat baffling. Does this mean everyone should start hating Rotherham now?

I actually really liked the last episode, and the general reaction on another forum I visit seems to have been positive too. I can certainly see why some people might not have liked it, but, for me, it was a classic South Park mish-mash of current affairs, religious parody and downright silliness.

I'm almost certain that's a US-only deal, sadly. It's been in effect for a few weeks now.

Well, Refused were going to play at Sonisphere, but have now been picked up by Download.

13 new bands: Refused Kids In Glass Houses Lower Than Atlantis Four Year Strong Gallows Don Broco Porter Robinson T. Mills Fearless Vampire Killers Kobra and the Lotus Edguy Rival Sons Black Spiders A few surprisingly big names in there considering the stage the announcement schedule is at now, along with a few not so high-profile additions. T. Mills is really dividing opinion over on the official Download forum, give that he's this year's 'alternative' rap act.