DanJW

Yup. Or on the shallow incline anyway.

Incidentally, amongst all the tabloid tripe earlier in the week was a well hidden news story about Blair being questioned by police again in the cash-for-honours scandal. I started to dislike Blair th instant I noticed how much he involved Alistair Campbell in everything. I despise Blair for bringing big business PR techniques to politics. Also for his complete refusal to even consider the possibility that Iraq was a bad decision. There are so many people who could have said "I told you so" and he refused to give them an inch of credit for having more foresight than himself. Gordon Bown I am mildly apprehensive about in a vague sort of way.

Also, a rather late comment on GTA4: is it me or is Eastern Europeanism/Former Soviet stuff the "in" thing at the moment? STALKER, GTA4, errr, other's I cant recall right now. It's not new per se, Rusian characters have been appearing in games for years, like Vlad in Max Payne. Even so the grittiness often imparted from a soveit bloc focus seems like a popular direction at the moment; I dont think this particlar zeitgeist wave has broken yet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6767623.stm comments? From the footage I have seen the game is pretty extreme and disturbing (and I've seen footage of JT in action!) Can't say I'm 100% surprised by this.

It is an interesting topic, you're right. Some of the fatalities in God of War II are utterly brutal - slamming someone's head in a big iron door, holding somoene elses under shallow water. Not stuf I'd nornally like to watch. But I found myself cheering and laughing at these parts while grimacing at the same time. The utter brazeness of these animations was a thrill - they're like hearing a very sick but also very funny joke. Half the reason you laugh so hard is because of the bad taste element (marmite-like comedian Jummy Carr says these are his favourite types of jokes - the ones that you know you shouldn't laugh at but can't help it). So I think the reason gamers respond to these things is a combination of the bad-taste thrill and the easter-egg type exploration you describe. Also, gamers are trained problem solvers and system explorers - if we solve a problem or find a new thingy in the system we get a warm glow, no matter what the fictional context is.

Yeah Wrestle, but on top of last week it can only add to some kind of momentum.

What are the current estimates of rate of computing power increase? It was meant to slow down over the next few years, but clearly isn't. When, basically, is the singularity? Or has that concept no longer in fashion?

Red Cross/Red Crescent. I know people that object to them for complicated political reasons/conspiracy theories, but in the end hosipitals are hospitals and medicine medicine.

ooh, nice flash!

looks like they're on a role, what with the bannings Burnout billboard banned, balefully

I was speaking to someone recently who works in a call centre hiered by charities to follow up sign-ups and stuff. The call cantre charges £5 per call made, whether or not it results in a subscription (and very few do). The bosses act all self-righteous and tell people they are doing good work, despite the fact the a fair few of the charities actually lose money from this.

Cheers for that rundown on GFX cards Thrik, most useful. I'm glad the spec numbers really are unhelpful and I wasn't just being thick

On a different tangent to the last; I've lost track entirely of how powerful AMD chips and GeForce graphics cards are. Which retard decided to name them using a bunch of apparently random numbers? It makes it very hard for me to compare power with Intel Processors and ATI cards respectively - I wouldn't be surprised if they have lost sales becuase of it. Does anyone know of a simple conversion chart or jargon translator? I need gigahertz dammit!

Apparently Take Two have postponed its release indefinitely. So it may reappear at some point in the future, or it may not. For now it is effectively banned everywhere.

Yeah, AI changes are a much better way to handle difficulty levels than increased damage/health. Compare F.E.A.R to Dark Messiah - hard level actually made the game more fun and interesting rather than merely more tedious. I also agree with you that difficulty spikes are more annoying than a constantly hard game. Ninja Gaiden is known for being hard and it is part of the game's appeal, whereas repeating a single 3-minute section of game in which you previously made steady progress can be a deal breaker and is probably the reason why "casual" players fail to finish most games.

ahahah, you wasted all that time retyping my post when you could have been playing FF VI. Abuse of mod powers should not be tolerated.

No, but it is an acceptable subject for a video game. What I'm saying is, would anyone really mind if we made a game about killing free newpaper touts? Also charity pushers.

hahaha look at the little Final Fantasy fangirl she can't handle anyone not liking it and so has to abuse her mod powers ahahahahah :spiraldy: :teddy: Rusalka, let me tell you something. You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. You are more beautiful than the most beautiful woman on earth, which doesn't even make sense, but that is how beautiful you are. Also, you are clever and funny and witty and kind, the kindest person I have ever known. Even though I complain about how stale your sandwiches are, I must say that you do make the BEST sandwiches I have ever tasted, and I only complain because that is in my nature. Furthermore, you make the best cups of tea and you always look after me when I come to visit. You make me dinner and give me a drink and make sure I am warm and content, and then you tell me how handsome I am so that I feel good about myself, and this Rusalka, this is because you are such a good friend. I miss you, and I wish I saw you more, but now my art classes are taking up all my time. I'm indebted to you for stealing a PC from work for me to use. I am repaying you for that by obsessively drawing you in my art classes. I have drawn you in chalk, in crayons, in paints, pencils... all the mediums, in fact, including making little figurines out of clay and beads and strings and things like that. Oh Rusalka. I hope that one day you and Spaff get married and have babies, because those babies will surely be the cleverest babies, and the best looking babies... for Spaff is so very goodlooking and clever and handsome and witty and kind and gorgeous and I love him so so so much. He is my total best friend and he has absolutely no faults whatsoever and I would surely die for him because he's my favouritest person. Yes. Also your friend Ginger, he is so handsome and kind and cool. Did you know this? How I wish I was Ginger! Everybody loves Ginger, because he is cool! Man, that guy is awesome. What is up with that? Why aren't I that extremely supreme? And Miffy, also, is cool. I wish I was Miffy. Oh Rusalka, I am glad that you are my friend. And I hope you enjoy Final Fantasy VI because it's surely the best game that I have ever played. Seriously. Not even kidding. I'm going to go and weep into my pillow RIGHT NOW because I wish I was playing FF6 instead of you. That game is so cool. Oh man. I'm so glad to be associated with you Rusalka Clarke. Now that you are a Junior Game Designer, you are so much more betterer than me, and I could only imagine being as cool as you one day. And as beautiful. How I wish my hair was as soft and nice as yours! Your hair is the best I have ever seen, in fact you probably have the nicest healthiest hair of any girl I have ever met!!!! Hmmm and your breasts are really nice and I like your figure, it's slender yet with curves in all the right places. And you have really good social skills. Let me think of other things to say. Hmmm.... you also have excellent dress sense... and excellent taste in boyfriends... and nice shoes... your BFF 'Ginger' is handsome and cool, I wish he was MY 'BFF' but he can only be one 'BFF' and unfortunately for me, you are cooler than me and claimed him first... and I like your computer and your DS lite is really nice... and you cook the most excellent food and... your cat is handsome. Will you marry me, Rusalka Clarke?

Yeah, you may as well just go to a restaurant and repeat the word "cunt" very loudly, upsetting the staff and patrons. Oh.. wait... Also, these touters are like nazi soldiers; they can't claim no responsibility for the machine of which they are part.

Don't you have a blog where you can do this sort of thing? despite edits, FF still sucks. except for Crystal Chronicles

That photo needs alt-text saying "Dagnammit".

That's a mature argument from the fangirl of a hundred IP's I'm bored of this now Anyone got any actual information to add to this story?

BANNED! SO BANNED! BAN HIM! U R TEH B4NX0R3D!!11oneoneone Normally the phrase "Sonic RPG" would make me cry, but I like Bioware enough that this has me sufficiently intrigued to stick around and see.

You're a subject