Thrik

Haha, I was thinking Jack Nicholson and Steve Buscemi. Either way, I like him.

Looks much better lighter, although you might want to add more photos as even in a small browser window I'm seeing the same photos on both sides of the main area. Also that black font in your blue sidebar is really difficult to read, white or something would be nicer.

Yeah, it's easy to forget that Source was literally mind-blowing technology when the first leaks of it hit the web. I remember being in absolute disbelief that those first dock videos could possibly be rendered in real time. It's also pretty fucking mindblowing that it wasn't too long after that Idle Thumbs' forums opened, come to think of it.

That is crazily big. I haven't had time to look through all this article shit yet, has it been revealed there's more than the one city? One thing I really liked about San Andreas wasn't the multiple cities as such, but the fact there were cute little villages and settlements in the middle of forests and deserts and shit. It felt like so much more a living, breathing world than the other games' seemingly inescapable cities due to the complete variety of environments. If they have snow in there too I'm on the verge of jizzing.

Random missions will most likely be great in the richer world of GTA. Want to help a broken-down motorist? Why not tow him off a fuckin' cliff! Pile of dead bodies? Drive through them and spread them all over the road! Someone's mugged an innocent bystander? Chainsaw his fucking face off.

I think they mean more along the lines of Red Dead Redemption's genuinely random encounters rather than GTA 4's, which were essentially just regular missions that're more difficult to trigger than usual — there was nothing particularly random about them. I imagine some of them will be taken wholesale, such as witnessing muggings (or knowing GTA, rapes) and it being down to you whether or not you want to defend the lady's honour.

I tried to give this a quick go while I was having a shit earlier. I just kept getting connection errors so that's pretty much that.

Variables to consider: Players can unlock the ability to chip away faster with coins they earn from chipping Players can (or will be able to) spend up to £50,000 for significantly faster chipping Deeper layers could be very different, whether it be bigger blocks or whatever (I'd expect surprises like this from Molyneux) Whatever the case, I can't deny that this whole thing is an intriguing experiment. So many people have been motivated to do something that is essentially the shittiest thing you could possibly have as a gameplay mechanic with the allure of pretty much nothing. Hope the other 21 experiments are just as interesting!

I suspect if things are going too slowly they have the ability to make the layers beneath made out of gigantic blocks or something. It's going to literally take forever if it's comprised of dozens of layers this size.

I recall he was singing Sony's praises when Portal 2 came out because Sony was very helpful about integrating Steam(Works) with the PS3, and generally seems more positive about them. It's quite a stark contrast to his earlier 'PS3. SHIT.' comments, which his current attitude towards Windows 8 is interestingly reminiscent of. Perhaps Valve sees the sense in using strong words to encourage more cooperation from otherwise steely giants.

Your avatar is pretty much exactly what I had in mind when saying that above.

Who's this Barack fellow? Barack sounds a lot like IRAQ if you ask me!!!!!

It might end up being not too far from the truth, though. Valve's been giving Linux a lot of attention, and it doesn't seem too unlikely their next game may coincide with a general push to disrupt Microsoft's dominance over the PC gaming space. It's almost like Gabe has been planting the seeds with his comments about Windows 8 and the efforts to get Steam fully working on Linux. What better game to give a major shove and encourage giving Linux a try than HL3? Imagine if they included Linux-only DLC.

Holy shit, actual HL3 news! http://p4r.buzzleberry.com/?p=357

Yeah, definitely need to be upfront about that one. I was wisely told by someone many years ago that "I don't think we're a fit" is a good way of avoiding implying that she's doing something wrong per se, and is generally better when letting girls down. I haven't had too many opportunities to use it, but when I do I imagine it's gone better than if I'd been all "You're just not what I'm looking for" or even worse the ultra-cliche "It's not you, it's me" which is understood by 99% of girls as "It's not me, it's you". Less rejectful, I guess. Whatever the case, need to cut that one loose and probably forget about any possibility of being friends afterwards.

Just think of it as a test. If you show any signs whatsoever of what she perceives as neediness (even if it's simply you wanting to know for sure if she's interested) then you lose. If you play it completely cool and barely hear from her ever again, you also lose. Girls!!!!!

Enjoying last night's bonfire night (GUY FAWKES).

So I was reading this article about an Otaku speed dating event in Japan: http://kotaku.com/59...s?post=53983361 Wait a minute, what the fuck Rodi?!

But you know what? These things all take minutes to try. You might as well give all our recommendations a go and roll with the one you like the feel of most, like with any software.

Rodi mentioned in the OP he already has web hosting, and 99% of them have one-click installers for WordPress. Plus, even without that it's literally the easiest thing ever to set up — lots of WordPress' success stems from it consistently being a cinch to install and use. But like I say, it depends what you want to do. If you want the control of it being on your server, go with WordPress. If you're happy with it being hosted elsewhere, I'd lean towards Tumblr as tapping into its community can be useful if you're smart about it and it is in all honesty a lovely application to use when simple blogging is your goal.

What's your recommended alternative? I personally rate the fuck out of WordPress, having used it for everything from personal blogs to complicated e-zines to my Brutal Legend fan site — and it's performed great while providing a lovely user experience each and every time. This only applies to the self-hosted version, though. The one on WordPress.com is a stripped-down version that just isn't worth bothering with if you have the means to host it yourself. If you're going with not hosting it yourself, Tumblr is a good platform and I'd say preferable to Blogger in just about every way. Really though, you could use Bob's News Shit and it wouldn't make too much difference. What'll really make or break your blog is having the patience and dedication to endure the soul-crushing months on end of few visitors and even less comments. I've seen so many skilled writers (including Thumbders) enthusiastically set up blogs only to be owned by a lack of audience because they vastly underestimate how much time it takes to build one up. If this possibility worries you, consider finding somewhere else to guest post and maybe ultimately become a permanent writer for instead. In fact, even if you write your own blog this is still a good idea to build up your recognition and drive people towards it.

WordPress if hosting yourself, Tumblr if not.

Half-Life 3 is out, guys!!!!!

Just not enough time to get through films. I still have like 10 in my Sky box that've been sat recorded for months on end — yet I continue recording and buying more, plus receiving some as presents! It's the film equivalent of my shelf o' games.