Raekwon

..killing the giant squid thing? I mean.. it's not like it attacks lara. It's just sitting calmly in it's pool.. and Lara goes and puts a few spikes though its head just so she can get past? Didn't feel very fair to me but then maybe I'm getting soft in me old age!

Working through it at the moment..impressed so far! Just met up with the kraken Seen a few reviews complain how short it is which is worrying, so will enjoy it while it lasts!

Yeah tbh I think programs like Steam are the only way companies are going to stop piracy. SecuROM is a disgrace and BP & I have already made the decision never to buy another game that comes with that type of DRM on principle. Anyway, I wont download this game, we've always bought the originals when it comes to TR, but I would be a hypocrite if I criticised people who do download it because I've done it before with other games.

Yeah I completley agree with that MsC! The tigers are much more of a challenge than any of the enemies in TRA. The can actually jump over objects which makes a big difference. The way you could avoid any animal by standing on any raised platform in TRA was really poor! Hopefully they've improved all the baddies in the same way. And yeah.. there are defintly other things they could do.. My idea would be that she could keep swimming for ages but eventually the screen just fades as if she ran out of energy and drowned and it counts as dying. It's also silly but it's better than invisible walls! Or at least.. the invisible walls shouldnt be so close.. Oh, speaking of drowing, that's my only other complaint. The length of time she can hold her breath for is INSANE. It was always long in the old TR games, but on this one you can actually leave Lara underwater while you go and make a cup of tea, and she'll still be alive when you're back. You could probably head out to the shops and buy some biscuits too. Really really strange decision.

Defientley impressed by the demo. The environent is beautiful, and Lara's movement some of the best I've seen in any game. Was a bit annoyed by some invisible walls at the start (very 90s..), and the AI still needs some work (Although it's better than in TRA), but overall.. I'm really looking forward to playing the full game

Ahh ok, thanks Ms. C! I have a feeling panther will be leaving our PC on all night with the game paused

Managed to get it on rapidshare earlier, mega quick to download! Panther has been playing it and it looks ace so far.. looking forward to getting my grubby little mittens on it. She's wondering if, if she quits the game, will it still save? Or do you always have to start from the beginning? if anyone knows that would be verrry helpful!

I have to say that, overall, I'm pretty dissapointed with this game. It's some impressive graphics and nothing more. Whilst the graphics and world might be lush, the first thing I noticed that the world is hardly interactive at all. So much for "Everything that should be destroyable can be destroyed".. that's an out and out lie. Try firing your RPG at a small metal shack.. not a thing happens. Compare that to Crysis where if you put a grenade against the wall of some metal hut, the wall would be blown away.. as it should be.. and could cause the roof to collapse. Similarly.. if you shoot a car tyre out in crysis, the car behaves as it should.. spinning out of control. In Farcry.. nothing.. not even a bullet hole. If you keep shooting a tyre enough, smoke starts coming out of the car radiator. Yes.. the radiator. The missions are repetive. Every mission is basically: Drive somewhere far away, and kill a random guy. Not exactly inspiring.. espescially when driving anywhere is an utter nightmare. The way jeeps randomly spawn, and come crashing head on in to you (same every time) gets boring after the 3rd time.. (after the fiftieth you just want to eat your own face it's so infuriating). Then there's these "check points".. fine.. except that after you kill everyone they respawn after 2 minutes and you have to kill them again. Besides, I know it's a war zone but why does it seem like every single person on the whole map is out to kill me? Even when i'm working for their side? Oh, I know, it would have taken too much effort to program that.... A common theme here.. the AI are less intelligent than on Far Cry 1. They are slow to react to anything and just seem to stand next to you shooting. Combine that with a sprawling and fairly nonsensical plot (Yeah.. we're in the middle of a warzone and the two rival army generals live across the street from each other... right) and the single most annoying aspect - lack of a "prone" option... and you have a massively underdeveloped and rushed game, with so much potential, that has been rushed out with a name it doesnt deserve (it's not related to Far Cry in any way at all, it's inferior to Far Cry in every aspect other than the graphics). Oh, but you're right ubisoft.. the fire does look pretty. Shame it goes out inexplicably after 2 minutes and even the charred grass "respawns" shortly after.. bah I've not given up on it yet, we've spent money on this and I'm determined to get my money's worth, but i'll never buy another game from ubisoft ever again. (i can download it off the pirate bay and crack it in 2 minutes while all the people who bought it struggle with their ridiculous digital rights management) P.s. one good thing to come from all this.. I've learnt which game review sites take money for reivews. Basically everyone except gamespy.com and yougamers.com!

Finished this yesterday.. it's excellent. Better than Crysis in my opinion (although obviously much shorter). I didn't like the way Crysis was structured - half the game fighting humans and then half the game fighting just aliens. This one is much more varied. Psycho is also a more interesting character. It's only about $20 in usa too I gather, so it's a bargain for 6 quality hours of gameplay

Oh yeah.. those popup warnings do my head in. I disabled that they first day I used it (it's in the control panel).. not noticed any problems since doing it but I appreciate that it increases that chances of me getting adware etc.... But I have this arrogant belief that it wont happen to me (we will see..!) Sounds like a good way to try it anyway, enjoy yer hol!

I've been using it for a few months now and like it more than XP. There are just two things annoying me. 1 - The imposed limit on TCP connections.. I used to use Win 2000 where you could have upwards of 65000 at the same time (well.. you never know when you might need them...!), in Vista there seems to be a limit of about 10. I often watch TV over the net using programs like Sopcast, that use a torrent protocol to send data. This limit of TCP connections really screws up those programs.. Now you can override this by using a custom TCP driver... BUT... 2. Vista SP1 forces you to only use drivers that are digitally signed by microsoft, so I can't use third party graphics card drivers anymore, and can't use a custom TCP driver. Although it is possible to make them work, you have to hold F8 ever time you boot the computer for them to work! grr Anyway, I plan to keep using it.. the pros outweigh the cons.

Hi LM! I was looking for a Lexmark X1100 vista driver but no luck yet. However.. there might be one that comes with Vista.. so this is worth a try - I'm not totally up to date on Vista but hopefully what I describe to you is similar to how it is on XP.. On Hannah's computer, if you click the button in the corner (where "Start" is on XP) and go to Control Panel, there should be a "Printers" option. In there, there should be an "Add Printer" thing you can click. Do this and chose "Add Network Printer", You should then get an option to "Browse for a Printer". This should then show a list of computers on your network. If you choose your computer there should be your printer somewhere in there (as I see you mentioned that you already had set to 'shared') Choose this printer and if it can find the drivers automatically, it should add it as an option on Hannah's computer. If it doesn't or you have any questions let me know and i'll see if I can explain better! Hope all is well

I thought it was ace. Well better than Episode 1! Really cool to have some different environments. And that gman....... Curious to play Portal now, if only because it seems the plot is tied in with Ep2. I want to know what's going on!!! TF2 is excellent too imo. The Orange box is a steal!

Yeah LCO is a phishing site.. Now that the secret is out I can exclusively reveal this picture of Tom: It can't be a phishing site because it doesn't ask you for any credit card numbers or anything, anywhere, so don't worry! Anyhow.. without seeing the current network adaptor support information I can't tell much about what's going on with your connection. Hope you manage to sort it!

So what does it say on that 'support' screen at the moment? Do you have an IP on the ethernet connection (when the wireless is disabled), or is it 0.0.0.0?

I used to work in network support for Liverpool University and had a lot of problems like this.. This is the first thing i'd always try... Disable your wireless connection (in My Network Places) Right click on the Ethernet Connection (also in My Network Places) Choose 'repair' if that fixes it..good.. if not.. double click on it, choose the 'support' tab, take a screenshot, and upload it if you would Obviously if it still aint workin, you can re-enable the wireless! but the reason I say to disable it first is that sometimes having them both enabled messes with the connection's chi for reasons I have never figured out.

it's turnin into a tech support thread innit I will think of a new title then if you like

oh.. not sure if you did this but I'll say anyway.. if you have Norton make sure you don't install any other virus scanners without uninstalling Norton... if you have more than one virus scanner installed at a time they both become pretty useless because they interfere with each other. No virus scanner can catch everything but norton is likely to catch most... it's just annoying as hell unfortunately! Moving this to the PC Tech zone btw

Try it again mate, seriously! The servers are hardly ever down and it's the best yer going to get without paying money (and half the ones that you pay for destroy your computer by slowing it down so much). If you are wondering why it didn't detect the popup thing you had, it is probably because it wasn't a virus, it was ad-ware, and if you download ad-aware and run it every few days that wont be a problem Hope that helps!

I used to get nervous playing TR2 when it came out. I remember when i a giant spider came down from the ceiling in the Temple of Xian (Tr2), i hit Alt+F4 and couldn't face loading up the game again for about 2 weeks Sign of a good game i guess!

Yus! Just managed to set up the tool and drew a big red sploge on the TRA Cammo outfit... it worked! (Although it's probably not much good for camoflage anymore...) If anyone needs a hand getting it going maybe I can help.. as long as you already have PSP or photoshop it's really not so hard Just to illustrate, this was my first attempt at doing some modding. Obviously this is very basic, and primative, no textures, etc... but i wanted to put Lara in a Liverpool shirt Unfortunatly the outfits you make have to be symetrical so you can't do asymetrical designs, hence the badge looking odd.

When you fight amanda at the end, there are a load of boxes lying around. It's easy to miss this while you're getting blown up by Amanda, but they have 'Natla Industries' written on them.. which must have been a deliberate clue

Better get yerself over to the PC Tech zone, sharpish!

Ahh dying never stopped Lara after TR4!! (Incidentally, I wish they'd resolve that plot.. even if it was just in a passive way to cater for the many new fans who've never played TR4. Maybe Lara could leave a journal in her house and you could flick back to that day. I gather some book did a story on it but given that only about 5 people have prolly read it, something in the games would be good!) Anyhow... TR8... I noticed that in TRA the last profile you unlock is Lara's father, which makes me almost certain that his background is going to be a significant part of TR8. It felt like a clue to me. Like the way they left a clue in TR7 with the 'Natla' boxes. Wouldn't mind Natla coming back in the next TR but it would create the question.. if shooting her and then crushing her like that can't kill her.. what can!?

Perhaps we do have some choice, sometimes, but generally we have to kill what's put in front of us (monks aside)... I think it was lazy of Core to ever put her in the situation... When Tomb Raider came out the character of Lara was one of the strongest things about the game. It was what separated it from other games, and what stopped the series from dying even when they were releasing crap games. If they stop caring about her character development it totally undermines her.. (in the same way that putting her in bikinis posing on beaches undermines her character). And if she's killing innocent people then who is the bad guy? She's just Duke Nukem without the one liners! (Ok that's an exaggeration.. but the point stands!)