Colourful Stuff

I'm unsure whether it is possible for me to play this game. I live on my university campus so my internet is saddled with a restrictive firewall (designed to eliminate file sharing not boobs). I desperately want to curve a road.

True, Zuma feels very weighty; like throwing pebbles into a stream.

Has anybody played Tokyo Crash Mobs? I'd like to know where the story goes after the GB Quick Look left it. Definitely more than just sexy Tetris.

The AI really is remarkable. So good in fact that I find it quite unnerving.

Pirates? Will AC5 be about ninjas or zombies? The restraint of the first game's setting was by far the best thing about it. The cold dirty blues of Acre, the golden glow of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock visible anywhere in the city. The same can be said for Florence and Venice in AC2. Carnival Venice is one of my strongest visual memories from a game. Then there are the tiny details like amassing a collection of real artworks in your villa. It is a shame all the great architecture and lighting is polluted with stupid Lawnmower Man computer nonsense.

The way the Lara Croft character has been used for advertising has always been creepy. I remember throughout the PS1 era the selection of the model who would pose as Lara in the adverts and go to game events was a big deal. The UK mags used to run double spread features on it. That was dumb but it's a little upsetting that in 15 years our society no longer finds sex adequately stimulating and marketers feel it must be paired with violence. It is possible that the moaning, wet tank topped, man murdering Lara was conceived independently of a marketing department, but it is being placed front and centre every time I see anything about this game.

Tagin' Dragon looks like it could be a late 90s Rio Grande board game.

Every game developer looks like Jake Rodkin.

Kid logic: My childhood home has a lane running behind it, giving access to the garages. Generally we would use the main street but would very occasionally use the little lane. This was something I found very difficult to comprehend as a child. I interpreted the two routes as disparate realities, one leading to family a, the other to family b. Two almost identical families. I would stage experiments, walking one way or the other then trying to perceive subtle differences in my families' character and appearance. I even convinced myself that a much preferred one over the other. It is hard to comprehend now but I really believed this up until the age of 5 or 6.

One thing that this game does very well is highlighting the comedy inherent to your ineptitude. Dropping a full magazine on the floor or dry firing three chambers before cycling through to your one remaining bullet makes your character seem like a clumsy idiot. I'd like a competitive multiplayer mode just to watch other people drop all their bullets and run away. It also reminded me of this ABC experiment: It turns out shooting people is really hard.

I played again for the first time in months; teleported my crew onto an exploding ship in the first sector. There are a lot of little rules one internalises when playing which I completely forgot. Making sure you match damage output with gradually improving enemy shields is a big one.

Couldn't Obama appeal to American's sense of tradition and the frontier spirit buy limiting the right to bear arms to muzzle loading long rifles? Mass shootings would only ever be conducted by well drilled yet disgruntled civil war reenactment societies.

I'm really only qualified to bake and eat a fruit cake.

Guys, I really like fruit cake.

The moment I start reading a new book the old one is dead to me. The only way I can go back is by starting from the beginning. Short fiction circumvents the problem for me. I've got Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things on standby now as fiction that I can dip into without resetting my brain entirely.

I think he's a saxophonist.

Your point about the public having to want change for it to be effective is a little simplistic. A rational and motivated minority will do regardless of the majority sentiment. The Civil Rights Movement for example. Also the moral or paternal responsibility of government can't be ignored. There was widespread support for the death penalty in the UK when it was abolished in 1965. A government striving to improve itself and the people it serves is commendable and feasible.

Has anybody posted this Wizard? It is a shame about the green garb however his scroll reads, "You are far more powerful than you can ever imagine..." which is pretty sweet. Also an exhaustive review buy ToyMan is titled "The WIZARD!" http://www.amazon.co..._sim_k_h_b_cs_3

My god, your food is levitating!

I'm glad everybody is as bored with shooting faces as I am. I got Spec Ops tonight. My interest in its attempt to convey an overt message is extremely tempered by the drudgery of the combat. The problem may be heightened by my playing with a mouse. The combat loop is 1) look for face, 2) click face. Maybe you are correct in your assessment that the noteworthy achievements among mainstream games are made less effective by a lack of genre variety. More than anything I find shooting humans to be a distasteful use of my time.

My girlfriend and I have just returned to university after a long summer and have decided to try a new hobby, board gaming. The idea sprung from our desire for an activity which would allow us to relax together after a long day without looking at a screen. It can be too easy to fall into negative patterns as a couple. Churning through a West Wing box set can be enjoyable but it doesn't really do much for the relationship. Our experience of board gaming up to this point is limited to Cluedo, Monopoly and Guess Who. Abi, my partner, has never even played a game of chess. Going to Boardgamegeek.com was a bewildering and unhelpful experience. Abandoning our research we decided to take a trip to the book shop and ended up with a copy of Carcassonne. Why did we choose it? Well, it was £20, I had heard of it Abi has been there in real life and the box said "ideal for two players". Unboxing our new game was remarkably exciting. I had never considered that element of the hobby before. Full colour instructions, little wooden people, thick printed cardboard, it was really a joy to dig through our little treasure chest. As Abi napped I read the instructions and internalised the simple rules in about half an hour. So it would fall to me explain the game, a daunting prospect. My fear was unfounded, after three turns the rules were shared. We could start playing for real. Building our little world was fantastically rewarding and the rules are simple enough for us to drink our G and Ts with impunity. So our first tentative steps into board gaming have been a success (more so for me as I won our first game handily). I may talk a little more about Carcassonne once we've had more time to explore the depth of the strategy. We will continue to play it for the the next month or so, but we really need advice as to what our next game should be. We are open to any theme or style, war game or strategy game, the only condition is it must be suited to two players.

That is true, many guns can be equipped or not equipped. Also Midnight Hobo can be consumed or not consumed. I give it three 'A's for interactivity.

It is a game if Brendan Chung says it is a game; Duchamp. More seriously I don't really care whether or not it is a game, but I'd argue that it is because you can click on the geese (or not, if you like).

The second edition of A Few Acres feels quite well balanced to me. It could be that the asymmetry is misinterpreted as a lack of balance. Mathematically the board is weighted toward the French, however the British have a stronger empire deck. If the game stagnates and neither player makes much headway the French will win but the British player is given the tools to punch forwards. The 3MA interview is great and worth going back to (152: A Few Minutes of Show With Martin Wallace). I'm unfamiliar with the Carcassonne variant you mentioned. Do you have a link to it? We took Carcassonne to my mum's at Christmas. It went down very well, as it has with Abi's housemates. The really nice thing about that game is a single turn explains almost all the rules, with the exception of farms.

Hmmm, anti-bread? In all its forms? Tycho; I've never worked with a living yeast. There was a culture of Herman cake circulating my friend group but never bothered taking any because it's a bit horrible. Can you direct me to a good sourdough recipe?