I have taught myself 100% manual controls on FIFA. It really demonstrates how terrible the AI is, both of the opponent, and of your team mates. When you start going into areas because of proper passing range that you wouldn't normally end up in with assistance on your team mates have no idea which way to run off the ball, and when the AI wins the ball back they have no idea how to play out from the back.

aspro said:

So in terms of you manually picking to whom to pass?  Usually they give it to the optimal teammate?

It passes to who you're aiming at, but it makes it so that your pass goes directly to them even if you're not aiming right at them. Through balls work in a similar manner, but obviously it passes it into space. Power is also assisted so that if you put too much power on the pass, or too little it still get to them.

With manual you can aim wherever you want on a 360 degree axis, and the ball goes where you aim (apart from being off balance and what not) with the power you play which means you can play far better through balls and passes.

Splinter Cell conviction is decent for a buy. It's a bit too fast paced and action focused though. Quite polished and easy to play, I would reccomend it at hobo price.

PS Vita?

That's one S away from being PS Vista and we all know Vista is a shit OS

So I played a good chunk of GTA San Andreas over the weekend. It doesn't make a good first impression. In fact thinking back to the reviews when it launched it's a little bizaare to see all the review hype hysteria around this title.

10/10 at Gamesradar

GTA: San Andreas is possibly the most ambitious game ever attempted, but that doesn't make it great. What does make it great is that it actually delivers on nearly everything it promises while still being fun to just pick up and play.

Game Informer

100

San Andreas breaks the video game mold and emerges as something far greater. This is more than a game. This is entertainment at its best

GameSpy

100

There really is no other game like it, despite there being many imitators, and this is precisely the kind of experience that reminds why, exactly, we play games: to be liberated from the constraints of reality, and explore living, breathing worlds. Few games have come this close to realizing that promise.

Computer and Video Games

100

A manifesto for every future video game. Now we've seen what can be done when truly brilliant people get to make a world brimming with variety, music, humour and sheer scale, very few other games are going to be able to live up to it.

G4 TV

100

Despite minor flaws, this is by far the most enjoyable game in the GTA series, and will eat well over 100 hours of your time.

IGN

99

In short, it's a terrific unending masterpiece of a game -- and one that will never fall victim to an over-exaggeration of its lofty status. It's the defining piece of software for Sony's successful sophomore system, and it's almost impossible to imagine a PlayStation 2 library without it.

More here

I mean have you actually gone back to play this game? It's ugly, really ugly. Apart from the cars it controls like utter shit, both gunplay and hand to hand combat, even with the atrociously implemented lock on. You can barely understand what any of the characters are saying as they assasinate the Queens English - I have to put subtitles on to even read this crap. Everything is either brown or orange and besides the shitty graphics - even for the time the game released in, the city of LA is just a dreary, boring concrete jungle with no personality or vibe.

The missions so far are nothing special and the layout of the city with it's elevated bridges are hard to navigate considering no GPS. The map is crap, the menus are unintuitive. It feels pretty archaic. It's still fun GTA beneath all of that, but this is lesser GTA to me.

I still maintain that the best GTA game, is Bully.

But because of that ignorant cunt Jack Thompson, the mass media were tricked into thinking it was some irresponsible shitfest not worth owning.

Happy Memorial Day!

I didn't like GTA SA at all the 1st ime I played it, and I remember having an argument about it with CarnageHeart on the Gamespot boards. The game starts off much worse than any of the other GTA games, and it gives the initial impression of being yet another piece of pop culture entertianment that glorifies the whole homeboy in the ghetto, so cool, so hardcore mentality that America has just loved for the past 20 years.

But once you get past the 1st few hours, the game gets awesome. It had by far the biggest world of any GTA game, rivaling fucking Elder Scrolls. And since you can travel pretty much the equivalent of the entire state of California, there's a ton of variety to the environments and missions you can go on. Remember burning the Pot fields with the old hippie?

The gang war missions later in the game were also fun...added some strategy element to the game. And while it would have been nice to have a GPS system, the design of the game made it not so bad despite the large world, and getting lost wasn't a problem. GTA4 looks so similar that even after beating the game numerous times I still can't get around without the GPS. So I'd say GTA SA is probably my 2nd favorite game behind GTA 3, with Vice City and GTA 4 3rd and 4th.

I'm thinking about switching from ATI to Nvidia later this year. For those familiar with the PC, is this an easy switch or is it a headache? Am I better off just upgrading my ATI card? The only reason I'm thinking of switching is because most games seem to be made more with Nvidia in mind.

Dvader said:

SA is easily the best GTA game and one of the greatest games ever made. Its Rockstar's ultimate masterpiece, every game they make is judged on that standard.

I thought every game they make is judged on the standard created by GTA 3?

edgecrusher said:

I'm thinking about switching from ATI to Nvidia later this year. For those familiar with the PC, is this an easy switch or is it a headache? Am I better off just upgrading my ATI card? The only reason I'm thinking of switching is because most games seem to be made more with Nvidia in mind.

No idea. I started with a GeForce 7900 GT or some such in 2006 and upgraded to an ATI, which I'm now trying to have replaced under warranty (that is, I won't be going NVIDIA again soon), so I've only gone in the opposite direction. Cost-wise, I always get the impression that ATI/AMD has much better bang for the buck, but it does seem like NVIDIA cards are more the standard.