Quote from danowat :

You can use any standard USB mouse and keyboard for the PS3, wasn't sure you could for the xbox.

However, you can't use them in games.

Standard USB keyboard/mouse work fine for the 360 in menu's and such, plugged mine in a few times. Although I cheat and plug the mouse into the keyboard (G15, has USB ports on back).

Only tried it in the menus and chat though, as far as I know only 4-5 360 games support kb/mouse fully.

One of the more suprising elements about the racing, with physics closer to reality than any GTA-type game before, is how many people will take it seriously, have had some very good races.

Had a funny moment last night - racing in a pack of motorbikes at pretty high speed, crested over a steep hill - i'd been gaining speed by taking smoother lines, overtook 2 bikes mid-air, landed with a small skid and a flash of sparks just infront of them, and carried on. Looks much more epic when your there playing

The accident damage is good as well..last night I failed to notice a car coming out a sideroad when I was racing, plowed straight into the back of it on a bike, thought I was superman, for a split sec until I heard the rather nasty noise of my body wrapping itself around a suspended signpost, and slowly crumple to the floor, where I got hit by a taxi anyway.

Everything just flows together so nicely, its rare a game pulls that off so well.

Have been enjoying some intense multiplayer racing in GTA:IV tonight, anyone else here trying it? Thought I'd try it as a change from the normal multiplayer options, and I'm hooked. Takes 20 secs to set up a 16 player race, in ranked races it seems to pair you up with racers on the same approx level as you, works well. Everything's available - supercars to SUV's, motorbikes to boats, fantastic stuff Didn't expect a decent arcade racer from a GTA title.

Interesting, http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=188021

Glad I don't have to wait that long to play it though

Quote :

Has to be said the original Focus is a fantastic car to drive and was the 1.6 was very highly rated in Autocar's track group test at Oulton Park a couple of years ago

They are a good drivers car, wasn't expecting that when I first drove one. Nice engines as well - mines a 1.8 Zetec trim, passed the 100k mile mark, and hasn't missed a beat. One figure I was suprised by as well, is the curbweight of a Fiesta ST, is higher than an original Focus, for all the fancy stripes and shiny wheels, one of them is barely faster than a mid-range Focus like mine.

Your money would be better spent on the 360, you can get a cracking deal on one at the min. The RRoD issue is way overblown IMO, the one person I know who had this issue, got a replacement console with no hassle at all. They changed a couple of bits in the manufacturing process last year to try and prevent the issue in new consoles, no issue with mine yet.

Not only is it cheaper than the PS3, and will have additional content for GTAIV, but its got some cracking games as well. Forza 2 is a worthy sim, lots of fun times to be had. Call of duty 4, Bioshock, Halo 3, PGR4, Mass Effect, the list is pretty long. The only PS3 exclusive I can think of thats notable is GT5, and its not worth paying the extra for a screenshot generator imo.

Its neither here nor there for which is better for GTA4 it seems - it plays well on 360, no noticable pop-up during gameplay, loading times may be shorter on PS3, but you only have 1 loading screen so its negliable. Not to mention the 360 will have more content added later in the year, making your money go further.

Jakg - the old ones make fantastic media servers, thats what mine does now, cheap as chips, easy to throw a 200gb HD in, reliable, and some great media software released for them. Added bonus of retro gaming when you want, emulators for them are well developed.

I was in a similar position not that long ago..and ended up with a Focus. It drove better than any other car I took for a test-drive - responsive engine, fun handling, looks miles better than the Fiesta, and is cheaper to run as well, which is nice.

Out the two though, I'd go for a Ford Probe

Quote from The General Lee :

How do you update Firmware? I really need to update mine...

Just use the Nokia PC suite to update it, and hope for the best.. does take longer on the N95 than any other phone I've had.

Damn, for once it paid to get one on release, the average price seems to have gone up over time.

I don't think you'll find anyone that will argue a cameraphone is as good as the real deal, but its "good enough" for something you carry in your pocket without having to carry a seperate camera.

Think I'll stick with my N95 as well, the Sony's just felt too cumbersome when you use the keypad imo. The camera is pretty sweet too compared to the others I looked at. Thats not forgetting the built-in GPS, which since the last firmware update will get a good signal anywhere, even indoors.

Random N95 pics, camera really can't be beat imo.

http://i113.photobucket.com/al ... /rtsbasic/16042008006.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/al ... /rtsbasic/21042008010.jpg

I remember reading some anouncement saying they've literally doubled the server capacity since Christmas, in preparation. They completely screwed up preparing for the christmas rush, hopefully this one will go smoother as a result. Works flawlessly at min though, pairs up matches quickly and no noticable lag during play. Guess that'll change Tuesday..

Oil tankers at dawn, armed passenger allowed

Just tried some of the multiplayer options..bloody hell, some of the best multiplayer experiences I've had on the 360. Nothing quite like shooting a chopper out the sky with a rocket, from a boat that you've just hi-jacked. Or driving along with 3 other team members in your car, showering any opposing force with bullets. Deathmatch is pure genious.

Quote from danowat :

The Xbox360 certainly has a problem with piracy, GTA IV was leaked on a number of BT trackers, and people were playing it well before release date.

It amazes me that anyone bothers to mod a 360 - with such a high failure rate, once MS give you the finger over the warranty, your pretty screwed.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Less loading time doesn't count for much, you only get one loading section, thats when you boot up the game. The only reason its faster for the PS3 is the 5 minute manditory install when you first play it. That would be done for the 360 too but not all 360's come with a hard drive as standard. The pop-up and AA issues are not really noticed according to most reviews, you only notice them when you really focus on the distance and look for it.

If you have the money to waste, just get both, I would if I had a PS3.

Pop-up isn't really noticeable, only twice has it really stood out, a) when you to go your apartment, it takes a couple of secs for the bed to fade in (special object maybe), and when your crossing the boarder from one island to another, it can take a couple of secs for the textures to catch up. But otherwise, I've not really noticed it.

Visually, its very very impressive, there's only two things that nag me. The textures used for trees, and some of the filters on shadows. But this is nit-picking.

One of the most impressive things you notice, is how natural every action and response looks. The world physics are better than any other GTA-like title, nothing looks scripted, just action/response. Sometimes when driving around it gives the impression of being in a cutscene, becuase the HUD is minimal anyway.

Rebel postmen? Top marks to them, if thats the case. You can imagine my suprise when the nice brown envolope turned up with it in.

Amazingly, my pre-order arrived in the post yesterday, can't remember the last time I spent an entire afternoon playing a game. Its one of them rare games that actually live up to the hype. Fantastic stuff

How anyone can not enjoy the Carmageddon series I cannot understand. The original was fantastic, and the 2nd one just improved on it. Still have original discs for them somewhere, along with the "splat pack" addon for the 1st.

The 3rd one though..was shite, no other way to describe it.

I got badly addicted to MM2 all them years ago, was a good mod community around it as well IIRC, for some reason I distinctly remember driving an old Volvo around SF.

Pedal bike..48mph indicated, down a nicely curved insanely big hill near Cranfield Overtaking traffic is fun.

Fastest I've driven a car would be just shy of 130mph, fastest I've been driven would be in the same car (Audi A6) touching on 140mph. Never traveled on a plane or high-speed train so I guess thats the fastest I've been.

I'm using the same package, pretty mixed feelings about it.

One thing I can't fault, is its reliable. In the last 5 months there's probably only been about 20 mins where I've not been able to load a webpage quickly. And for normal web downloads its very speedy, occasionally I even get the full 8mb. Pings are almost always very respectable as well (I am on an exchange that doesn't really get busy though..).

Its let down by two things, a) tech support, which has to be amongst the worst in industry. And b) port throttling, between 5pm-1am every day I can't download anything at more than 30kb/s, unless its a normal http download.

When I'm driving around Plymouth sometimes I want to kick myself for not opting for an auto, they save so much leg work, and modern gearboxes are very good at what they do.

Did have a bad experience once last year though, was on my way home in a Citroen C4 by myself, tiny bit of spirited driving, the gearbox decided I wasn't going fast enough, so just as I was going for the brake pedal for a bend the gearbox stuck in 2nd when it wanted to go to 3rd, at full throttle in spite of my foot being rather firmly on the other pedal, rev counter starts flashing red at me, one of the scariest experiences I've had on the road. Stupid computer controlled stuff.

Quote from Tweaker :

This video opened my eyes to a pretty horrific sequence of events. And it definitely changed my mind about speeding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmJjQekIaAs

Some commercial from the DOE?

Adverts that work? This is the only speeding one that pops into my head occasionally when thinking about driving. Makes you think.

Hmm, can't comment on the 1.1 engines really, both mine are 1.4's, which pull quite nicely, for what they are of course.

I always thought they're quite fun to drive - feels like a more refined 205. Very easy to make it do what you want - just chucking it around, or holding it on the balance of oversteer. Fun stuff.

The early clio's are nice, well thought out cars, but one thing to bear in mind is they're very uncomfortable if your tall - I'm not very comfortable in one (6ft5 tall).