This is a particularly impressive feat due to the inhibitive prices imposed on new games in Aus (generally over $100 AUD) which may not sound expensive when you do a direct exchange into your currency, but certainly is in comparisson to income. Perhaps if the government starts to appreciate the amount of revenue generated by games they may be more keen to sort out the 18 Rating fiasco...

Brilliant - just the thought of Rob the delivery guy endlessly repeating the same mistakes made me laugh. I can also relate to his strange desire to kill all the helpful tutorial characters - something about their smug demeanour as they tell you to 'press A to jump' is just asking for a slap.

Hats off to you guys for actually paying attention when someone isn't playing your game the way 'they should be' and trying to do something about it. Every games company should have their own Rob...

I don't see how achievements are any more pointless than gaining any kind of 'score' in a game, I can't trade my high-score on pac-man for anything either.

I personally like the achievements that aren't obvious or received just as part of playing the game. I still remember gaining the 'Irony' achievement in Bioshock and having a good laugh about it, it was like a private joke between myself and the developers. I personally don't bother with the achievements related to beating a game on the highest difficulty without dying etc, but thats the great thing about achievements, I can choose to completely ignore them without having any effect on the game whatsoever.

I think a lot of it is to do with perception. MY GF's parents recently watched me playing Star Wars TFU and were amazed at what they saw. This was because their concept of video games was stuck in the 8-bit era, with little pixel men jumping on little pixel turtles. They could hardly believe the sweeping backgrounds, the detailed characters or the interaction that was available. In my opinion if more people are exposed to the games of today it might go a long way to helping improve their respect for our hobby which has come such a long way. To that end we need more games festivals, more games TV shows and more exposure in the press (preferably not of the 'video games turn children into pyscopaths' variety)

If you have any doubts about this game, just download the demo and play a few games of multiplayer. My cousin and I used to play the Dreamcast version for hours, although we never could convince anyone else the game was any good - but stick with it and you'll find a game of rapidly shifting tactics and quick reflexes. I could hardly believe it when I heard this was coming to XBL, I never thought it would have enough of a fan base to justify the port, but I couldn't be happier that they did!

Let's hope this marks a new approach for Sega of porting more of their old classics instead of releasing mediocre 're-makes'. Anyone for Panzer Dragoon Zwei or Burning Rangers on XBL?