Hope it's better than Sim City 4, which had an annoying habit of crashing to desktop on every single playthrough.


Totally agree with you, I must have thrown weeks into both series, mostly Civ.

So, there seems to be a little hubbub in the online gaming press right now, regarding Shenmue HD remakes......please let it be true...

funny enough, just started playing simcity 4 again

once modded it's a brill game, and the crashing to desktop isn't a problem once u know how to avoid it

Club Nintendo now have their Kid Icarus: Uprising AR card packs up for purchase. 250 points per pack.

There's always the chance that these might become gold dust sooner or later. Or maybe not.

I am a spendthrift.

Should I wait for a discounted 'BrawlStick' to come into stock, or would a "Hori Tekken Wireless stick" be equally satisfactory?

The WWE sticks are much better, both in terms of the stock parts they come with and the potential for modding them in the future.

Fine and copacetic. The next game I play is that of waiting.

Jeeez and breadsticks, that is a sexy mofo! You'll be the manliest gamer on your block with that beaut!

What are the benefits of using an arcade stick? Why do you personally prefer them over control pads? I've often been tempted by sticks, but having been a control pad user in fighting games for 20 years, will it be difficult to adjust?

*250 points for 2 packs.

I spent all of my Star points to order 8 pairs of packs (so 16 packs). Only problem with them is, it takes Club Nintendo AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGEEEEEES to send stuff. When they say "Wait up to 8 weeks for delivery", they mean it.

Also interestingly enough, I was emailed by Nintendo's automatic system to fill in a Kid Icarus survey. One of the questions was if I would be interested in buying a pack of Kid Icarus AR cards in stores for £1 each....pretty specific question.

Do you speak in jest?


On a related note, I have discovered a cache of MadCatz Wii sticks being vended from our most comprehensive traders' emporium. Whilst tantalising, one cannot help but be aggravated by the barrier presented by the need for an adapter.

I replaced the stick and buttons of mine, but very deliberately kept the artwork.


People reckon it takes a few weeks to make the switch, but you would definitely be able to do it, despite your advancing years. :p

The benefits are much debated as some people are fully capable of ridiculously accurate control on a pad (I could cite examples from arguably the best 2D fighting game player in Europe playing on pad, to one of my local players being able to pull off the craziest combos in UMvC3 on one), but imo a lot more people find that the stick allows for more precise movements - the gate that the stick sits in and the microswitches on the stick and buttons are just technically higher quality and all-around more well made than regular pads, as long as you buy arcade-quality parts.

Presumably the kit is a bit more future-proof than it used to be too? With the current gen at it's climax, I'd hate to invest in good kit only to be unable to use it on the next machine.

And my 'advancing years' are, thankfully, not that advanced yet. I'd wager there's fewer than two years between us.

I would say less than the tech being future-proof, the community is. At first people had to rely on plug-in converters to, say, use a PS2 stick on a PS3, and with the exception of a couple of models these weren't great as they introduced input lag. But what has happened in the last couple of years is far more people offering services to rewire (or even make from scratch) sticks so that 360 ones will work on PS3 too, for example. I would expect that to carry over to the "next gen", even if the controllers are not directly compatible.

Just read about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club on ANN. It's an "anime-style" adventure/simulation game out 27th April on PC and it sounds like a whole lot of fun. Thought I'd mention it here since there may be some interest and I can't be the only one who was unaware of its existence until now.

I do wish they wouldn't Westernise the characters' names, though.