greydan

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About greydan

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  1. I don't think I've ever heard the word 'inugial' before and google isn't turning anything up I'd guess it's the american pronunciation of inguinal, but if so, what are 'groinal' mechanics? heard at 1:22:40
  2. Trackmania 2: Stadium

    if anyone's looking for a server to play custom maps on I volunteer my 40 slot server, 'Multiplay: Carbonated Server' (filter for UK servers) link dropboxed maps here and I'll upload them to the rotation
  3. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

    An almost complete ignorance of the period wasn;t an obstacle for myself: I have devoured the novel on three seperate occassions and my only knowledge of the era, apart from a college course on The War of the Roses from Henry V to VII, is the mnemonic 'Divorced, Beheaded, Died. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'. I would tend to agree: it's as if, in accumulating positions and influence, he sqeezes out other men until they are almost afterthoughts. Indeed, such is the strength of his character that this is happening even before any formal positions are bestowed. I don't know anything about the period, did he in fact preside over the torture and burning of 'heretics'? If so, how is he beloved by anyone? As someone who almost never reads 'Historical fiction' (ie: a contemporary author exploring history), Gormongous, I would attempt to answer your question 'what makes this attempt at historical fiction so special' by saying that it is not special historical fiction, it is special fiction by any measure. Wolf Hall is one of the most pleasurable novels I've ever read. As Gormongous mentioned earlier, Cromwell is clad in layers of history, public and private. These garments, if you will, are closely examined for colour, weave and texture as they are measured and cut for his person. Despite not having read the novel recently and having no quotes to hand, a few scenes embedded themselves as exemplars: The Cardinal, Cavendish and Cromwell on the barge (to Esher?) after being turned out of somewhere (maybe Esher :s). The trio are related to some form of Italian play and his grim drive is enshrined for us. Such a naturally apt framing of a tale's people and purpose is invaluable. His wife's white cap, her prayer book (George finding him weeping over it) and Grace's wings (oh that 'did she ever know me'); symbols of his love and remembrance as humane and palpable as any in fiction. The unveiling of his portrait and subsequent conversation with Gregory, his gentleman son (is that the scene where Gregory sorts his papers by size?). When asked if he always looks like a murderer Gregory replies 'did you not know?'. The tender pride with which he regards his son, more usually mocked, describes the responsibilities and values of a parent while revealing Cromwell's most relatable side. 'I, a simple Cardinal', several times Wolsey's over-humble self-description, always repeated by Cromwell; his smiling digestion of the phrase being not just a point of humour but a natural emphasis of the grand position in which his Cardinal resides, in the world and his own esteem. Henry's resplendant person. The impact on him when (it might be at their meeting) Henry turns to reveal the full breadth of his person and, while they discuss war and the roles of ruler and subject, the nation turns with him. The book is replete with such easy embellishments; character, place and action, all things are cherished, all woven together in the texturous language of a brilliant, colourful novel. Which leads me to a question of my own. After Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies failed to resonate with me. Am i alone in this? If not, what had changed? Was the second book overly reminiscent of the first? Were the images and thoughts chewed over because Mantell was scrabbling to recreate the majesty of the preceeding novel? Or was this a deliberate tack, a rumination on age and the weight of memories? Has anyone here read Cavendish's memoirs, the ones mentioned by the author in the afterword? Worth reading for a non-historian? PS. Sorry for being so longwinded: Wolf Hall is a perenniel favourite. When Chris brought it up as a candidate in one of the first Book Club pods I practically jumped for joy (or would have if I weren't iracing at the time). I've been anticipating the event ever since and am thrilled to discuss the novel with this great crowd.
  4. Chris Roberts' new space combat sim

    while i was reading Maths and Physics at college I came to terms with the fact that a galactic community a la star wars or the Culture is probably impossible hearing chris talk about simulating one is invigorating; how marvellous to overcome our physical bounds in a virtual space I think christmas presents will be scanted a bit this year
  5. howdy, a handful of friends and i have been teaming up to play Wargame a couple times a week since it launched we were talking about starting a league and I thought I'd see if anyone here is interested in a 1v1 league rules aren't finalised so rather than each-way matches (NATO vs PACT and PACT vs NATO) we could look at mirror matches or straight confrontation if time is an issue if anyone's interested in playing a couple games a month in a league let me know
  6. XCOM Enemy Unknown

    for anyone having trouble with the tech tree or balancing investment in satellites, I suggest arc throwers and containment into carapace armour while stunning everything in sight and researching light plasmas as soon as carapace is done - the resources saved on building laser rifles has made the mid game much less of a struggle, at least for me that's not going to help if all your officers die - which has ended my previous couple games - but the bonus to hit of light plasmas makes rookie less useless and easier to train up unrelated question: how to train snipers? I really struggle to use them without squadsight
  7. XCOM Enemy Unknown

    http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?158376-Anti-cheating-mod-and-real-ufos-released!-Classic-difficult-only
  8. XCOM Enemy Unknown

    I feel ya I just logged on to vent on this topic as has been mentioned, chance plays a big role in classic ironman's shootouts; though painful losses are common, when a couple spawns of enemies are in play, mitigating some bad dice isn't impossible but I've triggered some insane spawns which I just can't handle: - throw everything I have at a lone Cyberdisk and barely kill it, next turn four more float through the wall - I got LoS on a downed UFO just as four Mutons, a Berserker, a Cyber and three Floaters walk out the front door - on one terror mission I met nine Crysalids on turn three and a Cyber arrived on turn four - an escort mission halfway into the first month had 12 Thinmen jump me during turns three and four while brutal, this is the tough love I expect an x-com [xcom] to display. is anyone else not seeing crazy spawns on abduction missions? they're fairly safe afaik oh and I'd like to ask: with the smaller squad sizes, what's having the biggest impact on battles, luck or tactics?
  9. XCOM Enemy Unknown

    I don't have much time now, I just wanted to make amends for being such a grump after the demo I only stopped playing last night because a final snakeman got lucky with critical hits, killing my entire squad in four turns without that painful prompt I wouldn't have been able to tear myself away EDIT Oh Hey my first game this afternoon I finally saw a cyberdisk five of them :/ against three rookies and two squaddies I think I've reached a fail state :/
  10. would anyone else back 1960? or is it too much too soon?
  11. [DISCLAIMER] This thread was originally about the demo, which didn't show the mechanics in a good light I'm too washed out to get clinical about these 'features' and how they undermine the tactical foundations of XCOM, I just wanted to vent Move or shoot and then move or shoot again Spot an alien? keep on trucking A progression of knee high walls Skills on cooldown Nonexistent facing - overwatch 360 degrees for the win Recruits all have the same stats Small, high-survivability squads One base Binary choice of missions Scaled-down economy (200 simoleons for helping the chinese? whtf?) Please, someone tell me it gets better, that these simplified elements add up to substantive strategy gaming [EDIT] To answer my own question: Yes!
  12. DayZ

    when bullets are passing close enough for their shockwave to be audible, paranoia is a quite sensible each round there is more audible for the sonic-boom as it passes than the report at the muzzle or the impact on target you used of crack, I assumed that was the sound you heard?
  13. DayZ

    brannagan, that crack is more likely a round's supersonic shockwave - in ARMA, the supersonic crack is sharp and very loud, whereas rounds hitting trees or earth is muffled and comparatively lower pitch
  14. DayZ

    three-month old character willing to overwatch and tute less experienced players who're looking to gear up will work for beans
  15. My problem with Civ V was the jarring mis-match of that micro-manged combat and the grand strategy of 'Civ' - played one game, said 'meh' Picked up Warlock yesterday - played for six hours already I think the light tone, focus on combat and simple management suits a stackless hex-grid