LOZZAT

@Purple_eye: Yeah, after reading most of the previews, since MIchael is a 'retired' heist-puller, there will be many big set-piece robberies this time around rather than just one. Also, whilst you can freely switch between the three characters off-mission just to have fun or do side-missions or what-have-you, in-mission you can switch between people to get yourself into the action constantly. An example given was extracting some guy from the IAA (GTA equivalent of CIA) building; you can switch between Trevor piloting the helictopter, Michael rappelling down to get the guy, or Franklin covering them with a sniper rifle from a rooftop. Hopefully this will mean there's never a dull moment!

@Rincewind said:

If they were pirates they could have turned into a bird and flown away from the cops.

Yes. YES.

Letters From Iwo Jima is one of the few that's done it for me!

The larger the online base, the higher the likelihood of running into dicks, really.

Also the more seriously people take a game, the more likely they will be dicks to people who are struggling with it or are new to it.

Generation Kill

Despite what they may want me to call it, I will forever call it Skyoshock.

So are we assuming the dude we play as well be part-Native American who's totally pro-Washington's forces and so on, fighting against the British who are mixed up with the Templar stuff? Lots of Native Americans fought for the British as well, so I'm hoping you fight for neither completely, to make it more interesting.

@MysteriousBob said:

C. Depends on the game

Being stealthy in Arkham City or even Crysis is cool and satisfying. But I would never play a stealth character in Skyrim.

As with this, I am not particularly all for waiting in a shadowy corner in a crouched position and trying desperately to judge the path of a nearby guard who would clobber me if it came to actual fighting, but I am all for a more fluid stealthiness where I can keep moving... across rooftops... striking swiftly and silently from above, like a muted and less frantic bird of prey... feeling like the ultimate predator...

Some games make stealth more rewarding than others. Trying to play Hidden & Dangerous 2 in solo mode on a high difficulty setting as far as I remember was both heart attack-inducing and painfully slow, for example. But the game also had moments where it was incredible and fantastically rewarding. Difficult to judge...

More great topics of debate. What's even better is there isn't just agreement on everything either, getting the two perspectives actually makes it a lot more interesting.

Surely gaming is still in such a state of relative infancy as a medium, that not picking up on experience-changing technical differences or detractors would cause fault with games analysis as it is. Games can be played from so many perspectives, and there are so many approaches to what makes a video game a video game, that other broad topics like linearity can't always be talked about without any other bias.

The same problems will apply no matter who's face is glaring at you from posters. Even if they (the presidential candidates) have radically different views from one another there's only so much they can do after taking office before their powers are seriously limited by factors other than their personal views, of which there are many important ones.