The 2 trailers I have seen for portal 2 don't really show gameplay. I'm not saying that you should watch them but it is worth noting

And with a free copy of portal - I have got 2 of my house mates hooked

I had ilh in BF2 but games like black ops even forced me to change my steam name to ilhilh otherwise i was known as unknownsoldier7 or something :/ In BC2 i am ilh. (with the . ). Add me if you like

FPS is my first love in gaming and what I spend most time doing and as such to say I might be looking forwards to BF3 is something of an understatement! But after a while I can get bored and have to try other games. I even move around FPS and play a bit of CoD4 and counter-strike source if I have enough of BC2 for a while

The TW games are not for everyone - but I do find them rewarding. On a decent difficulty setting it really can be a struggle. The turned based nature of the campaign map means that you have to be efficient - from deciding on building priorities to making sure your troops are capturing/holding territory and then moving onto the next conquest as fast as possible. Early on you have to juggle kick-starting your economy against getting your army going. The problem is that you need to capture more territory to get more money but you need money to get the troops to be able to expand in the first place. Only having 1 army early on can leave you chasing your tail somewhat and as I say, you need to anticipate the game a lot until you get established.

Most TW games have 'suffered' in regards to you really do hit a point where you have 'made it'. Your economy is strong and you are fielding several armies and can push in multiple directions and it is just a case of mopping up. In shogun it seems that when you are nearing this point the shogunate gets stroppy and goes to town on you. And not in some small way either - they gather most nations into an alliance and rush headlong at you. I haven't got that far myself but I have friends who got steamrollered by the massed coalition against them and they were playing on normal mode (losers! I haven't risked very hard or legendary difficulties for my first play through but I have gone on hard - and had to start again twice but I refuse to go on normal mode!).

Thanks, I didn't want to take the chance. I might check them out now. x)

When I next get BF2 up and running I shall certainly add you, thanks. That is if I can work out how to. My own in game alias for BF2 is Azro<>Tararg, which was a joke name but stuck. Had many epic battles! It would be fun to play alongside you sometime for sure.

Thanks for enlightening me on the subject of TW and how to play it. Just to display my complete ignorance, I hadn't even realised there was an economy side to it. Hoho. I really ought to start reading the manuals more! Okay, I only played the tutorial and had one battle after, in which I think I abandoned it as I got bored. I can't really remember.

Part of the problem is with Windows, especially back a few years, I would spend more time reinstalling the OS than playing games, usually because of BF2 actually. The amount of problems I've had beggars belief. The more complex your system gets (ie - you add a Creative soundcard), the more prone you are to suffering with driver problems. Hopefully things have changed now as I'm using Windows 7 and Creative, when I last looked, seem to have smartened up their act a little.

Anyway, your comments weren't wasted. I find the setting of Shogun a huge draw. I love feudal Japan (though I'm really glad I wasn't around then, unless I was samurai of course). Did you ever read the book? Shogun by James Clavell? It's a bit of a biggie but well worth it if you have any interest in the history of Japan, ninjas or samurai or old carrack style ships for that matter. It's very good!

Back on topic, I should really load steam up and get some pre-orders sorted by the sounds of things.

No but I will have to add it to my book list. I do like a good history book every now and then Am currently reading about the persian empire and their scuffles with the greeks.

I moved onto windows 7 back in November and have had no problems so far. I used to reinstall XP about every 6 months cos it [censored] me off so much!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZMSAzZ76EU&hd=1

New vid

Funny

Hehe quality

http://valvearg.com/wiki/Emails_from_Gabe_Newell#Tra...

Looks like the PC might be getting it a few days a head of consoles if this holds true, given the whole ARG thing is one mindfuck after another you never know but it is valve, it might just end up being a preload. I suspect pirate versions of both PS3 and 360 will appear next week (i haven't seen anything indicating they've been released so far), lets hope it stays that way.

Roll on next week....