I've been reading quite a bit around the internet about a certain challenge. A specific way to play one of my favourite games, Grand Theft Auto IV. The aim is to play it as realistically as possible. While I'm playing, I have to abide by the following rules:

- Have a realistic sleeping pattern. There's time for around two missions on each day. I sleep at around 22:00 PM
- Doing missions only on weekdays, and spend the weekends doing activities with friends and buying clothes
- Eat regularly
- Change clothes regularly
- Drive safely, only drive recklessly when in a hurry or when getting away from the police
- Try not to commit unnecessary crimes
- Carrying a realistic supply of weaponry on you (nobody just has a bazooka in their pocket)
- Targeting mode set on 'Basic'
- Auto Aiming set 'off'

I'm also adding permadeath as a personal challenge. But let's keep it realistic here. Not everything should outright kill Niko. If I get beaten up in a fight, fall 'to death' from a small height, or get hit by a car from a slow speed, I'm allowing myself to continue from the hospital. If I get shot 'to death', I'll toss a coin to decide whether I play on or not since not every gun wound is fatal. Getting blown up by a grenade or exploding vehicle or getting burned alive is instant death though and I'll have to restart the game.

I've already tried the first couple of missions, and I had no idea it would be this much fun. I'm experiencing the game world in an entirely new way. It requires some patience with getting around (you can always just hail taxis) but if you own Grand Theft Auto IV and fancy a really interesting way to play, I highly recommend you try this.

I haven't played many Sonic games, actually. I remember playing one of the earlier Sonic games on the computer back in the day.... But the only Sonic game I've recently played a lot was Sonic Heroes. Which is.... meh. Honestly, that's it, really. So I guess Sonic Heroes is my favourite.

Alright, I gave in to the hype and looked up the newest updates. I kinda just wanna talk about the protagonists... Are they 8 years old?

7/10

Dodrio was a beast in the first generation and it retained its status as the #1 Flying type all the way to the 3rd generation, but that came to an end in the 4th generation when Staraptor came to the scene. Staraptor just outclasses Dodrio in stats but widely outclasses Dodrio with its natural moves and better TM movepool. Staraptor learns Brave Bird, Dodrio learns Thrash. Both powerful moves have a tradeoff, but Brave Bird is much more relieable. Dodrio is still a good Flying type, but it fell from grace throughout the years.

Next Pokémon to be judged shall be Furret!

Why did it take such a long time for someone to mention Wreck-It-Ralph? lol

Anyway, for me it's either the Tomb Raider movies, the first Silent Hill movie or Prince of Persia. Jake Gyllenhaal was a fine Prince, and Angelina Jolie was a perfect Lara Croft. And Silent Hill just did most of the things it did right. Pyramid Head was just thrown in there for fan appeal, but I didn't mind. He looked as disturbing and menacing as he should be, so I'm not complaning.

Guys, you may want to sit down for a second.

Are you sitting? Good.

I picked up the NTSC version of Final Fantasy VII in a garage sale, for € 2,50. It's legit and complete, and clean and unscratched. With the discs and booklet. The problem is though, that I live in Europe. I live in the PAL region. So the game doesn't work in my PlayStation. The game's owner probably wanted to get rid of it because she thought it was broken or something. So I basically have one of the greatest games in RPG history - in mint condition - for the price of some ice cream. I'll have to mod my PlayStation if I want to play it. Probably will do in the future.

I pretty much always turn subtitles off. I can understand English perfectly fine, so there's no reason for me to turn them on. If there does happen to be something that I miss it's usually not that important, and having them on gives me another thing to focus on, thus distracting me from what's happening in the cutscenes. They sometimes show up during gameplay too, filling the screen with 'unnecessary' stuff. When large chunks of the game is in a language I don't understand, I might consider it if the game is really heavy on the plot. But even then, I find them more of a distraction than a help, to be honest. Even in movies I like to just turn them off when I can. So I'm not big on subtitles, haha.

That's a hard question. The PS2 is probably my favourite system, so there's a lot of games on there I really like. To name a couple, here goes:

Freedom Fighters - A simple, yet effective squad shooter. The game takes place in New York City. Russia invades America, and as a NY resident, you form your own liberation army and drive back the Russians one mission at a time. It's a shame nobody really talks about this one.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - I cannot list my favourite PS2 games (or fav video games in general) without talking about GTA. I think I love all three of the main GTAs equally, so I'll just mention Vice City here for the heck of it. Vice City is an epic power fantasy where in the end you get your whole own crime imperium. It's Saints Row, but a lot more serious.

ICO - I could've just as well put Shadow Of The Colossus on here, but since I don't actually own that one (yet) and it's been way too long to accurately remember how I liked it, I figured I put its older brother on here, ICO. The entire game is one big escort mission, but a great one at that. 10/10 would escort again.

Kingdom Hearts II - The first Kingdom Hearts didn't age well imo, but the sequel aged like fine wine. It still looks amazing and plays like a charm. There's so much going on on your screen but you'll never feel overwhelmed by everything that happens. Plus, I'm a sucker for Disney, haha.

Peter Jackson's King Kong - King Kong is one of those rare movie licensed video games  that are REALLY good. You get to play as man and as Kong in this game. As Kong, it becomes an awesome dinosaur slayer and as man it becomes the Jurassic Park game that every fan always wanted. It can also be pretty damn scary at times, too. Who would have thought!

Spider-Man 2 - Look, another game that's set in New York. Really though, this game is awesome. Spider-Man 2 is another one of the rare movie licensed games that are really good. You actually get to BE Spider-Man as you swoop through New York, busting criminals, and... Well, mainly that, since that is about the only thing that the game does really good. But that alone is so good that it is one of my favourite PS2 games ever. 

This question has probably been asked before, but since I don't think I should bump any old threads, I figured I'd make a new one...

Do you like horror games? If so, what game has so far best succeeded in scaring the pants off of you? For me, it's probably Silent Hill 2. The part in the prison freaked me out especially. There is this murmuring there and I never found who or what did that. It's probably Pyramid Head, but that's exactly the thing that scares me so much - I just don't know. And I love it.

Other games that are good contenders for the scariest games I played are Alien: Isolation, Slender and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X.

The fact that you mentioned strategies that not many people would normally use in normal play is pretty commendable. I admire reading about people using a Clefable against Misty. The thought alone about it is pretty cool.

However, there are some errors in this guide. Brock's Onix is Lv 14 instead of 12, you named Butterfree Beautifly at one point, you said Koga has two Weezings, and so on. I'd suggest reading through your guides a couple of times and fish out the errors. But still, I liked reading this and read about different ways to play.

I'm listening to the OST of the PS1 game A Bug's Life... Very good soundtrack, actually.

It's great to see this game getting some love! Believe it or not, this is the game that got me into Naruto as a whole, and now it's still one of my most cherished anime, haha. This was a good read, thank you!

Spyro The Dragon will be one of the next games I'll pick up for the PS1. I used to love this series as a kid. I actually still own Year Of The Dragon, and have loads of fun whenever I play it! This is a good review, btw. Some might argue that it's a little short, but honestly there isn't much to say for a simple children's game like this one. This is a good read that made me reminice about the old days.

Oh mannnn, I can't WAIT for this to come out on PS4! Nice review, I really liked it.

The last movie I actually watched was How To Tame A Dragon. I love computer animated movies, and I hadn't seen it yet. I know, shame on me. It's a really good movie, basically because it has dragons in it, haha.

Uncharted 2.  The first Uncharted didn't age well imo, with clunky shooting mechanics, an underdeveloped villain and a very short game time compared to the other two. The next two games were a lot better in that regard, and I think Uncharted 2 is just a little bit better because even if Uncharted 3 has some awesome set-pieces and great characters, it feels a little more-of-the-same.

One great soundtrack I'm listening to right now is of The Sims. The original, from the year 2000. It's so soothing.... and very nostalgic. I remember I once streamed the entire soundtrack of The Sims out of the speakers while my grandparents were over. They obviously had no idea where it was from, but they loved it so much. It's hard to imagine a video game soundtrack who can make anyone listen to it with pleasure.

I'm currently travelling, and I managed to pick up one of my childhood favourite games, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, for the PS1. I am sooo gonna play that when I get home!

I'm currently playing a Pokemon Heart Gold nuzlocke, so that would be it. I've been raising my Togetic, Happy, for the Ghost gym in Ecruteak City.

I love permadeath runs. Basically, you play any video game you consider yourself to be good at, and you try to get as far as you can without dying once. When you die once, you have to start the game over from the beginning. This is often paired with other self-imposed limitations of turning offf the game HUD so you don't see the amount of enemies on your radar, can't see how much health you have left, don't know when you're hurting for ammo, etc etc. It really makes you value life a lot more, knowing that one slip-up can cause to your death, just like in real life.

Personally, I've attempted a Far Cry 3 permadeath, and tonight I'm starting a permadeath run on Grand Theft Auto V in first-person camera mode.

Have you tried this once? If so, what's your favourite game to permadeath?