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Thoroughly enjoying the current run of form from all areas - loving Zombo particularly. Hope to see this make a swift return once this initial chapter is concluded.
J.

Ah, The Shutdown Man beat me to it - after waxing lyrical about TF2, "Meet the Spy" is the perfect illustration of the humour built into the game. Absolutely laugh out loud funny (do not read before viewing the video!):-

[spoiler:r1u4u8cd]"So leesten up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be ze second worst zhing zhat 'appens to you today."[/spoiler:r1u4u8cd]

5 Stars, going to get a round in before bed now

J.

[Bioshock]

I hereby throw my votes behind:

Bioshock - fabulously rich immersive environment, by turns it becomes genuinely scary, funny and macabre. Has the soul of System Shock 2, and if you've got the hardware to do it justice, it looks beautiful too.

The Orange Box - what's not to like?
*Half Life 2 *is* as good, if not better than the original (and I lived, slept, breathed and ate that thing).
*Portal - ignore anything you've read or heard, just go into it without preconception and you will love it. Funniest game I have played in years.
*Team Fortress 2 - best multiplayer PC FPS since the original Half Life. Absolutely superb, and (possibly because of the deliberately "unrealistic" nature of the graphics) it doesn't seem to attract the screeching, howling mouth-breathers who will assault your both your ears with their incessant, whiny, pre-pubescent swearing, and your brain with their inability to carry out even the simplest of tasks. The great community around TF2 is what sets it head and shoulders above others in the genre. It's also about as finely balanced a game as you'll find, no classes truly dominate, everyone has a counter.

Left 4 Dead - excellent, but it's pretty much *all* multiplayer. Atmostpheric though, so if you're a fan of zombie movies, you'll enjoy it greatly.

Mass Effect - very, very good, highly recommended if you're an RPG fan. Lots of backstory to keep your interest between firefights. Small downside is that it looks as if it were designed for a console (which it was)

Fallout 3 - I'm torn. On the one hand, I've got many hours of play on this. It's excellent. Really, really good. I've had a lot of enjoyment out of it....
...but. But. BUT. It's a mind-boggling mess of bugs and glitches. It's been out now for more than six months, and *still* isn't patched to stability for all users. It's currently in disgrace, here on my shelf, having crashed to desktop five times in one evening - with no rhyme, reason or pattern. Just "Whoops, oh dear, that's another half hour wasted".

Bethesda seem more concerned with shoving the DLC packs out of the door than they are with fixing fundamental flaws in the original game. For the record, they've issued three lots of chargeable DLC. Every one has been bugged - in some cases, bugged to the point of being entirely unplayable. Buyer beware.

...but I do still love it. Even buggy, glitchy and soul-destroying, it's a cracking game.

The best of the lot, if you could only choose one? Bioshock. Well, or Orange Box. Probably. Or...erm...both of them. I think that you should be able to pick them up for peanuts these days anyway.

Enjoy.
J.

...is this thing on?

Hello, recently - well, about six months ago now - returned to the flock, after a number of years off saving the Himalayas and climbing dolphins.

Gap in reading largely down to living in places which were too small to swing the proverbial, much less cope with the ever-growing stacks of back issues. Delighted to have rediscovered the joys of weekly Thrillpower.

J.