Timmoru Suzuki

Like on previous games? That's what I have been doing, but it doesn't seem to work - at least the touch isn't a substantial as in previous games. At first I thought it might be tiring legs or maybe just coming up against the odd quick defender; but twice in the first half of a match last night the CPU controlled Cassano opened up a gap big enough to build an out-of-town retail park between himself and the Germany duo of Lahm and Hummels with just one touch. It happened later again with a break in midfield. So, I don't know then. I just assumed they'd buggered around with the sprinting controls.

Okay, they've changed the running. Why can the computer run 500x as fast as I can, and what do I have to do now to be able to run quickly with the ball?

Not being the best at PES, it's taken me four attempts on the demo to win on professional. I had a game on regular but found it too easy. I really need to take the time to learn any skill moves whatsoever... Anyway, I sort of like it. Graphically it's superb, the passing seems wonderful. Not sure about through balls this year; its harder to get the angles right, which is good but when you do get it right the CPU seems to take a peverse pleasure in under or over hitting the pass anyway. CPU also freakishly good at free-kicks. New tackling system is hard but good. Only gripe being double-tap X to tackle being the same as the pass button - a few times I've won the ball back and then have already passed the ball out of play/straight back at the CPU. But...good, so far, I think. Though I've learned not to get my hopes up too quickly.

Downloading now. If previous years is anything to go by, I'll love this, be indifferent to demo 2 and dislike the final product. We shall see.

I've completed all of The Companion's quests (bar the ever re-occuring random radiant ones) so I'm sure he could die. If he doesn't cook for me >_>

I've recently finished some more Scandinavian crime fiction - 1222 by Anne Holt and Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf. No idea what to read next. I've just brought myself a collection of Poe after having watched a couple of the Rodger Corman film adaptations or I've still got Let the Right One in, an adaptation of The Odyssey and James Clavell's Shogun at the top of my reading pile. But, after reading the books mentioned above, I was stumbling around for my next reading choice and found on my shelf the first volume of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (that I have NO recollection buying it must have been years) and I've started reading that. I've read the first two parts and I'm enjoying it a lot so far; so I'll probably be in the mood for reading one of the (numerous) Victorian adventures that have bypassed me so far. Which brings me onto a question: Does anyone know what King Solomon's mines and/or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are like?

Lydia is the only follower I use; she's been very resilient and quite deadly with a bow. I also could use Uthgerd, a bard from the very first town in the game and some bloke from Morthal who decided that I'd been a good friend to him 20 seconds after meeting him for the first time. I could also drag the husband around with me (Farkas from the companions) but if he gets killed who'll cook me dinners and give me 100 gold a day for doing nothing?

A few months ago I brought Rome: Total War for £1 and have still yet to play it. True story.

But now I think I'm stuck on the Diplomatic Immunity quest...I didn't take any lockpicks with me, I get an Expert level door and I can't find a key to it..only have Interrigation Chamber keys, but no dungeon keys.. And where the hell did Lydia go? I sent her away to use Faendal for a little bit, she said she'd be at my Breezehome house, and now I can't find her at all.. Re: being stuck, can you leave the area and come back (I assume that you can)? If so there's a standing stone which, when active, grants you one 'free' lock-pick a day. I used it to complete a side-quest which required you to pick a lock and my lockpicking is shit. I forget what the stone is called, but it's in the north, in the icy wastelands, if you were to draw an imaginary line between the college of Winterhold and Dawnstar its pretty much bang in the middle. I should know, I spent an eternity wandering around trying to find the bugger. Though of course, if you CAN leave the area, you can leave the area and buy a lockpick >_>

No I do that all the time. Mostly because I suck at reading the in game map and end up roaming around the foothills at the bottom of a mountain for ages and ages. The way I see it, it just makes arriving somewhere all the more rewarding >_> Reading Benji's posts, I'm wondering if I've been doing archery wrong. It's just a case of holding down whichever shoulder button you assign the bow to and then releasing right? Cos my stat never levels up and enemies never seem to take damage from the shots. It got to the stage where I just stopped trying with it and levelled up on Destruction magic and one-armed combat. Also Benji

Okay so it's a card game rather than a board game, but I just brought this bad boy. Not had chance for a game yet though. Cthulhu Gloom

So after months of FIFA12 sitting atop my rental list, Lovefilm have finally sent me the game. I'm still tinkering with the settings to get something that I like. I've been a PES boy since about 1999, so even with the alternate control set, FIFA is still taking so adjusting to. I've aleady upped the game speed as the default was deathly slow and upped the injury rate a little. Assisted shooting/crossing/passing is dire, but manual will take a lot of learning, so I've gone for semi-assisted, which I hoped would make the game play like PES, but it doesn't. I prefer the defending on FIFA though, I have to say. I'm still rubbish, but I can feel myself improving, and I enjoy the more tactical, thought out style. Crossing and corners seem to be generally useless, and I've not won a free-kick in about ten matches. I also prefer the tactical depth PES offers in terms of player positioning and formation tweeks. And thus concludes my random early impressions.

When I originally did my list and could only do a top 8, I was *this* close to a joke Chris Hemsworth vote. Purely to make up the numbers of course.

I've edited my list after it emerged that I'd forgotten Allison Brie.

I don't know what a Miranda Kerr is. 1. Natalie Portman 2. Holly Willoughby 3. Scarlett Johansson 4. Mila Kunis 5. Karen Gillan 6. Gemma Arterton 7. Allison Brie 8. Charlotte Wessels (in some pictures looks so cute I might explode, in others, less so.) 9. Freida Pinto 10. Michelle Monaghan Hard lines Zooey Deschanel and Eliza Dushku.

Victory.

To say that about five or six years ago PES was fantastic and FIFA was miserable, the games have been very close recently. Thing is, every year the PES trailers are impressive and the Demo's play superbly but then the final game has the same old issues (not least the rubber-band AI) and I'm left wondering why the final product plays worse than the demo. I still find FIFA to be more than a little mechanical and souless, but playable; and I've begun to think that I might as well buy FIFA and get exactly what I expect, rather than buy PES expecting a return to form and getting something less. Also, drunken FIFA > Drunken PES. Finally, while I still play copious amounts of Football Manager, its been a fair few years since I was still playing PES/FIFA regualarly more than a month after release, and I'm unsure if that's a statement on the quality of the games or on my gaming preferences changing. I expect that the quality of the demos will tell me more, and that I'll end up getting one or the other if they're playable enough.

I'm hoping that you can... I've deleted the file which produces the fake names, but TBH I've never checked if they're a playable nation or not. If not, then Denmark it is!

Been playing this again the last few days with the intention of doing a couple of odds and ends with my first character and then finally starting a new game with a totally different character. Five or six hours later and I've been completely drawn in to new quests that I've unlocked and doing little tasks and I'm nowhere near ready for a new character now; I've forgotten how absorbing the game can be. On a side note, I just completed the quest which solves the murders in Windhelm ('Blood on the Ice) and the quest finale took place in the streets of Windhelm in a swirling blizard. Looked and felt completely epic. More than pumped for Dawnguard. Not sure if my current character would be on one side or the other; being a werewolf what can I have against vanpires? On the other hand the lore of Dawnguard might include a werewolf/vampire feud. Of course, I could be on neither side. I'll no doubt create characters to experience both sides of the Dawnguard/Vampire war.

I'm already fancying a Denmark game! And a Germany one.

Inspired by Euro 2012 I've started a game as England. A bit annoying that Daniel Sturridge, Danny Wellbeck, Tom Cleverley, Kyle Walker and Adam Johnson and to a lesser extent Phil Jones and Chris Smalling NEVER get a game for their club. Aside from the lack of development, I can hardly justify picking players that never get a game. So much for my planned youthful revolution.

England, though the media hype machine before a match, the optimism overload should we win a match and the despair 'woe is us' tabloid misery should we not win every match 6-0 makes following England a bloody frustrating experience. And fuck Jordan Henderson. And Stewart Downing. And...okay, I'll stop. Beyond that I don't really care.

Oh my god the trailer looks glorious. I love the western genre and for the most part I like Tarantino (with much love for Pulp Fiction & Reservoir Dogs)so I was always interested in this and then the trailer looks fabulous.

Basically: OMFG. I've wanted to play Pyschonauts since I read a review of the XBox version years back, but the console version became as rare as hens teeth and I never got to play it. I loved the Bastion demo and just never got around to actually buying it before, and I've heard nothing but good things about Limbo. Not heard of the other two, but the bundle could just be a three pack and I'd have brought it. I actually feel slightly dirty that I've 'only' paid the price that I have for it, but I think anything would feel like too little. Brilliant!