Van Hemlock.com - Comments

Elristo comments on Equal Opportunity Moaning: Xbox 360

Elristo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:53:16 +0000

As one of the aforementioned Americans I must say Gold membership rocks, especially coupled with Netflix. I am more than happy to pay for Xbox live because it is a very good system. The UI takes some getting used to as the more features that are added the more crowded the menus. It can take awhile to find what you want when you know it exists. Tough to browse and find stuff you don't know exists.
My main issue is with the noise, and like John I like to copy the games onto the hard drive and play from there to make the whole thing quieter.
If they make a quiter more reliable model I would upgrade, my Xbox has allready gone the ship it, fix it, get it back route once. They can leave the little flap that covers the USB port plug in area off as well, the spring on that broke the first week and just stays open all the time now.

Toodle Pipski or what not.

Elristo

Trinnet comments on Equal Opportunity Moaning: Xbox 360

Trinnet — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:39:18 +0000

I love my 360 - I love it so much I'm now on my 4th, but I have to say you're pretty much spot on with all of your grumbles.

I'm also incredibly bitter about the Americans having vast libraries of stuff they can download while we're stuck with a choice between Transformers and Miss Congeniality, but I suspect that's not entirely Microsoft's fault.

Cj Didge comments on Equal Opportunity Moaning: Xbox 360

Cj Didge — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:46:37 +0000

As i remember it wasn't through a normal phone line, i should of said. So i suppose its his broadband provider then as he's adament about the extra charges, i havent got a PS3 so don't know myself. His solution was to use the next door neighbours wifi.

Jon Shute comments on Equal Opportunity Moaning: Xbox 360

Jon Shute — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:17:47 +0000

I'm pretty sure that PS3s aren't making calls because they don't have the hardware to do that built in. They only connect over networks and not the phone line, unlike sky boxes.

Cj Didge comments on Equal Opportunity Moaning: Xbox 360

Cj Didge — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:04:09 +0000

"I don’t mind paying for Live, in fact I’d rather pay and get proactive banning of cheaters and the better service in general than not pay anything and get the PS3 service."

My brother in law always says that when my nephews use the PS3 online service he gets a big phone bill as the console seems to make a phone call like the old SKY boxes used too. Im not suer if its his phone company but i get the imprssion that the PS3's online service isn't really free. Have you noticed anything?

Akely comments on Van Hemlock Episode 93

Akely — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:28:23 +0000

I'm thinking about getting BC2 so I can shoot Jon in the face... ;-)

Jon: Disregard the above... Please tell us more about the DAO tool kits. As an old RPG gamemaster I'm adept at doing adventures/story, but I have very little experience with tools for games. How hard is it?

Jon Shute comments on Van Hemlock Episode 93

Jon Shute — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:48:36 +0000

Dragon Age:
I did actually pick up Dragon Age on PC yesterday (for £10!) so I can have a play with the modding tools. I'll let everybody know how I feel about the differences in the next "what we're playing" show.

Battlefield:
I'm going to keep chipping away at it, I do enjoy shooters online it's just I'm not good enough to do that well :)

Telke comments on Van Hemlock Episode 93

Telke — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:05:01 +0000

Pretty much agree with most of the BFBC2 stuff - the XP grind is, i think, too steep at the start - and it doesn't do enough to teach you how to GET experience, how to work properly as a team - ie, putting down an ammo kit when playing Assault (or a medpack as Medic) will get you a lot of points - but you have to experiment to get to it. If you want to get into BFBC2, there's a youtube video called "How not to be a noob in BC2" that's very good.

Akely comments on Van Hemlock Episode 93

Akely — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:14:05 +0000

DAO:
I've heard there are pretty big differences between the console and PC version in how you could pan the camera. I think I've heard that the console version could not zoom out and up as mucj. What ever.

PC gaming is dead:
The reason Jon lists is the reason I've always meant is what makes the PC superior to the consoles. But I totally disregard the fact that such upgrading is expensive and often require some aptitude at building the machine yourself. I consider the money I plow down into my machine(s) "hobby expenses".

PixelCody comments on Van Hemlock Episode 93

PixelCody — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:36:20 +0000

Aye, great podcast as always!

Don't think I could play Dragon Age on the 360. The PC version, however, is fantastic. I love being able to pause, take an isometric view of the whole battlefield and control my party with just a few mouse clicks.

Adding in mods that give respecs and more tactic slots (programmable squad AI !) meant I could crank the difficulty up and play it like the tactical RPG that I'd always wanted.

Hope you give Bad Company 2 another shot, I played the beta and it's my fav squad-based shooter in years. I think the unlocks are tied to mini achievements within each class rather than your overall level too. Sadly I'm skint and don't own the box yet so I can't double check that one.