Its a bit addictive this trading card faff!

Genius & congrats! Have fun and remember, if it all goes tits-up, head to the aquarium.

Johnners! How's it going? Just thought I'd tell you this, as I think you're probably the only person that'll appreciate it. I'm going on my belated honeymoon today, and will be spending about 3 days of it in Dubai. "What should be my holiday book?" I asked myself. As I'm sure you'll agree, there was only one choice: Heart of Darkness.

Bioshock. Intro, intersting. Atmosphere, not bad. Melee, fine. Shooting, rubbish (the game designers presumably had someone in from Nerf as a technical advisor). X-Men powers, sort of ok, samey. The levels all look the same. The cartoon characters bother me - they have japanese-style 'super deformed' heads, which removes any scariness and sense you are 'there'. It's like being attack by vaguely "dark" Disney characters; but dark in that really lazy, irritating Tim Burton "Crazy!!" (TM) way, which people inexplicably love, even though it's clealy rubbish. The Big Daddies(?), (I guess) supposed to be intimidating. If it was Pyramid Head following me about, then yes, I'd poo myself. But it's Popeye in a diving suit. Sidestep, zap, shoot, yawn, repeat. If you die, then you just try again. The best things in the game are the water effects (ace) and politcal theory (amusing and alarmingly appealing).

I managed to get FC3, 2 and 1 for... $8! Shortly after its release I was lucky enough to be directed to a webpage that temporarily made some mad pricing error and sold it for peanuts. The best value for money ever I reckon.

It's a shame your not enjoying Bioshock - I remember the level design being fine, though I can sort of understand your problems with character design (although I don't mind them). The hacking is poo as well. Having said all that I enjoy the combat a lot and I think the atmosphere and storyline are top knotch (first half anyway). Didn't you even like the intro? It's probably one of the best I've seen in gaming!

I want to get FC3 but not enough to pay full price. I will wait for a Steam sale to get it all and the DLC for about 1/3 off. Played some more Bioshock today. Bored stiff. Hopefully it will get better. The 'hacking' mini 'game' sucks balls and makes me not want to hack anything. I don't like the character designs either. The enemies are in no way scary. The level designs are dull also. Hmm.