What's everyone playing at the moment?

Dawn of War 2 and Demon's Souls after getting back into it.

I forgot how much I like RTS games, even when they're more Diablo like than they usually are. Just as well I love Diablo.

Did most of Deathspank, it's probably best to do a quick playthrough start to finish. It's not quite funny or clicky enough for me. torchlight was significantly better. Not sure how much of a factor the control method is in it but it's definitely a factor.

Wow, nothing, for ages.

When was the last time I was on Live, anyone on my Friends List?

Got Fate/Extra in today though - Persona-esque RPG for the PSP, based on the Fate/Stay Night franchise, so I might give that a look.

Did I give you too much of a kicking at SSFIV?

Polished off Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands last night. The last section is a byeeeaooootch but it's a great game.

Once done with that I decided to go through Limbo again and it's amazing how quick you can power through a second run through when you know what's coming and which bits look suspiciously like they'll kill you. Some of the momentum-based puzzles are still bastardos though.

I think I nabbed at least one more achievement for something hidden so I'll have to see if I can find more.

lol, whilst your style of play does represent a lot of what I don't like about the game, I do regularly play people who I literally can't win a single match against (and also people who do some of the annoying things you do, but are also not as likable as people, which obviously makes it worse), so I wouldn't worry about that.

Remember me?

I've finally got some time to play games, so been going back to games I missed that're now cheap.

Red Faction Guerrilla has been pretty good fun, but I felt my interest waning a little before I got distracted by, Borderlands which looks lovely and is pretty compulsive.

Decided to go back to Crackdown 1 after enjoying the demo of Crackdown 2. Playing that from the start again. Prefer the lighter graphic style.

Also been playing some facebook stuff in the name of research, farmville lasted a day, but I'm growing quite fond of FrontierVille. The need to Spam friends or cough up a fair bit in micro payments is a bit worrying but so far I've avoided both.

Chuck me an invite if you see me on Trip, any of the Crackdowns or Borderlands, ace games!

What time are you gaming now?

You know, I don't think I've ever played Borderlands in co-op. Need to rectify that.

Enjoying Hydro Thunder XBLA at the moment, and my "free" copy of POP Forgotten Sands arrived this morning.

Um... isn't the intro a carbon copy of the PS2's Sands of Time? I'm enjoying it... but it's the laziest job Ubi have knocked out for some time. Already better than last year's un-interactive cartoon though.

I bought Heavenly Sword and Killzone 2 cheap over the weekend.

Heavenly Sword is rubbish. Average graphics, boring and clichéd gameplay and a terrible frame rate. It makes me fear for the quality of Enslaved.

Killzone 2... Well, jury is still out on that one for me, but it's certainly not all that like some people said on release. It's macho bullshit, all grey and makes me think it designed with the thought "TEENAGE BOYS WILL LOVE THIS". I know Gears Of War is guilty of this as well, but at least that has a sense of humour and knows what it really is.

I got God Of War III recently as well. I'm quite enjoying that, although there are moments where I wonder if the designers ever left the last generation.

Apart from that, I still have the odd bash on Crackdown 2, and I've clocked up nearly 80 hours on SSFIV. I LOVE THAT GAME.

I cancelled my Live Gold as I never used it and I'm pretty skint, but I'd be up for some PC Borderlands. I'm playing whenever I get a chance at the moment, but mostly daytime Japanese time. I'll drop you a line on Steam if I see you on when I'm up for a game.

You mean release 18 months ago? And Heavenly Sword's crap graphics from three years ago? There is a downside to not playing stuff when it's hot, you know. ;)

Hydro Thunder Hurricane at the moment.

Limbo, Deathspank and Lost Planet 2.

Been playing a fair bit of Team Fortress 2 lately, great game :) Basically just playing as medic so far, but really enjoying it.

By the by, I'm also up for a bit of Borderlands (PC) co-op sometime if anyone's interested.

I only have Borderlands on 360 :(

It's a great game though, love it to bits.

Hmmm, I really must finish that Knoxx DLC.

I'm also powering through Assassins Creed 2 at the moment, it's bloody gorgeous, so very pretty.

I doubt Heavenly Sword's poor frame rate, screen tearing, long load times and washed-out colours would have been all that hot 3 years ago either.

Currently playing waiting for Uncharted 2 to update so I can play something on my dusty PS3.

Played a bit of Joe Danger earlier.

Meh.

That game doesn't last as long as Everybody's Golf. I raise your 30-40 minutes for UC2 for a 9hrs and 17mins for Everybody's Golf.

I cringe every time my PS3 states that it needs to update a game. The 360 says 'update required' and within 30 seconds, including a log out, a system restart and a log back in, it's done. The PS3 says 'update required' and you have to seriously consider whether you have enough years left in your life before the update will finish.

Actually sounds about standard tbh.

I've honestly barely touched the PS3 in six months. Last night reminded me why. Firstly, the 60 gig HD is full. All this mandatory install thing was a fucking ridiculous idea - and hasn't benefited the games at all, looking at multi-format software. So, I switch on, then have to wait for a firmware update. Then I try to start up a game - single player, mind. Update required. Do I want to update? No. I just want to play. PS3 says fuck you and refuses to load the game. Click yes to the update... and wait almost an hour.

Try to install something new... yup, 5 gig install required. Locks up for three minutes before deciding I don't have enough disc space. Um and ah over what to delete. Pick something that won't take forever to reinstall down the line. Insert new game. Wait twenty fucking minutes. Installed. Now needs an update! Server error. Boots me back out of the game.

Hulk. Fucking. Smash.

So many things wrong with this fucking console, I'm sometimes stunned I've hung onto it.

It has it's plusses, no doubt, but in terms of all the consoles I've ever owned (which is a lot), the PS3 is the one that has frustrated me and disappointed me the most. Obviously my expectations are higher than they were in the Master System days for example, but then times change.

Couldn't disagree more. The PS3 has a couple of niggles but at least it's not designed to be a frustrating maze that does nothing but try to sell you more shit at every turn. The fact that you can't even turn a 360 on without being greeted with a sodding advert kills me. It's like the Sky TV of gaming consoles. You can see all this other stuff that your machine can potentially do but there's always a fucking fee in the way.

In the same way that I view Sky as a deeply lacking service, I find the 360 a very difficult games console to like. I fucking *loved* my Xbox (and still do) but the 360 is a horrible gamer-hating wallet-sapping system.

It wouldn't be so bad if the changes needed weren't quite so... close! Give me an option to have some free content without me having to pay £25 a year to run the sodding system! Give me an option to turn on the machine and have the disc in the drive play or at the very least to display my games library *before* I choose to go looking at what's new! Let me use subscription services without having to pay twice for the fucking things (Sky, Last.FM). And if you're going to make me pay for the Live network at least have the courtesy to give me decent download speeds. a 1gb demo takes 4-5 hours on Live when the same size download took under 20 minutes on PSN

What's absolutely beyond me is how much the 360's been evangalised over the last 5 years with everyone simply taking the multiple RRODs, lack of WiFi, expensive HDDs, battery-sapping controllers as par for the course. When the Slim's come out, everyone's jumped on it, more than happy to shell out £200 for it when in fact it's tantamount to a paid-for product recall!

Full disclosure: I swapped my PS3 for a 360 earlier this year thinking things had changed somewhat from the early days of the 360. I was sadly mistaken but I'm stuck with it now.

Ha, and again, couldn't disagree more.

It would be far too long to go into, and we won't gain anything from it, but interestingly on my 3gb line I can get a 1.5gb demo from XBLA in about an hour. It's not too bad. On the PSN, I get 1mb every 27 seconds. I've timed it. It's horrendous. You've obviously had a very different experience to me but they're are a number of people who really struggle with painfully slow PSN download speeds whereas the Wii/PC/360 downloads are relatively consistent and fine. It's odd.

This is me. PSN is painfully slow compared to the silky smooth speeds of the Xbox. Menus too - On the PS3 I hate that I have to wait for the icons to change from the revolving arrows to whatever they're supposed to be.

This is me playing a new game on my Xbox:

Turn on 360.
Insert disk.
Press up, then A on pad.
Update found. Download and install done in seconds.
Game loads, I play.

This is me playing a new game on my PS3:

Turn on PS3.
Insert disk.
Download PS3 system update.
Continue to download PS3 system update.
Still downloading PS3 system update.
PS3 system update nearly done.
Installing PS3 system update.
Finish installing PS3 system update.
Press left then down twice then X on pad.
Downloading game update.
Continue downloading game update.
Still downloading game update.
Download complete.
Installing game update.
Game update stalls midway for a few seconds for no apparent reason.
Game update install finishes.
Second game update install starts.
Continue downloading game update.
Finish game update.
Installing update.
Install finish.
Mandatory game installation to HDD.
Still installing.
Still installing.
Go for a piss and a drink.
Still installing.
Done installing.
Play game.

You do know you can skip the updates and get straight into playing a PS3 game. Don't you?

Yeah I know, it's not the point you're trying to make - and I've moaned plenty about the PS3's dial-up-hosted updates servers.

First statement is just factually incorrect, second statement would be if you'd stated it as a fact.

Really, if you think that negatively about the 360 user experience and that much better of the PS3 one your "I'm quitting gaming" thread was *well* overdue.

Put Demon's Souls back on last night. (Also working through my first play of Uncharted 2 - about halfway through.)

Oh, PS3, I can't stay angry at you for too long. DS is sublime. :)

In the next two weeks, I'm angling to work my way through Heavy Rain (despite some cunt on EG spoiling who the killer is) and try again to get into Motorstorm PR. May even see if I can finish Infamous... and the drek that was Resistance 2.

I love holidays.

Have to disagree, mate. I think it's the single most frustrating piece of tech I've ever bought. When it's working it really is an impressive machine - but I fear for anyone who picked this up as their first console. Sony made so many mistakes with the implementation. It's the least user friendly console I've ever encountered.

Sometimes, I get the impression it just doesn't want to let me play a game, out of spite.

Ah right, never mind, I might be back on live soonish as I'm back on the XNA train and need gold to stick it online, should I ever get it done.

Didn't notice this until now...

You'll be pleased to hear I have all the colours and taunts now so I'm playing "seriously" with my main characters. You should see a lot less scrubby play from me these days.

I hope.

Anyway - God Of War III. It's a bit fucking good isn't it?