DanJW

Yeah, not sure how they can justify that price rise, considering it's about $2 to the £ right now. I suppose us Brits can just take out another loan for the hardware, adding to our world-record-breaking amount of debt as a nation.

I cannot see your images of destruction

All of the ones that matter. Yay for 1,500. Hello Blytant. You would probably win a prize if we had any.

Yay! Sweet! Yours shall be the first NWN2 mod I play Ryam. I beat the official campaign at the weekend. I'm also going to start my own mod now. W00t for toolsets!

Yeah, Troika are gone. Penny Arcade pointed out how this might not be a bad thing if their talented members can find a home where games are made with fewer bugs. I was interested in Bloodlines during it's devlopment, but decided against buying it when I heard about the bugs and how incredibly clumsy the combat and 3D interaction is. Considering that it's the Source Engine that isn't very forgivable. Now, if they had the Bloodlines story but with combat akin to Dark Messiah, that would have been something...

Awsome. I commented. That makes me awsome by association.

You win.

I can't see any difference. Did you do something to the lampshade?

There has been one major patch, which seems to have fixed the major complaints, such as the camera. No doubt there are still some glitches, but the only bug I've encountered is a very occasional crash during the truly massive battles. NB just finished the game. After the excellent voice acting throughout the game, it was a dissapointment to hear what sounded like one of the designers awkwardly narrating the epilogue. Ouch. My advice: turn off your speakers when you finish the last boss.

I've almost finished the official campaign for NWN2, and it's pretty damn good (I agree with you on the first game SP). It feels a lot like Baldurs Gate 2, with tones of KOTOR2. I'm looking forward to getting into the toolset once I'm done with SP. And yes, there was some great MP options in the first game, which I expect can only be expanded upon in the new game. There were Persistant Worlds, which were like mini MMOs, but with the added benefit that the module makers can add content based upon player actions (I played on an excellent server called Battledale that included a player-driven storyline involving an old-time player becoming a lich and hence an NPC boss. I'll relate it all some other time, needless to say it blew me away). Also, NWN is perfect for emulating table-top games. You can have one DM/mod-maker and a small group of players. The DM can make a new mod each month to continue the story based on what the players have done (and the DM system means that you can possess any NPC and play their part, just as in a table-top game). It's definatley sometyhing I'd like to try some day.

*COUGHneverwinternightstwoCOUGH*

Well, WOW is the least grindy MMO I've encountered. And there are many subtlies in the game if you care to venture into them - although they are of the D&D variety, based around tuning your character to get the exact stats you want. For intance a mage could spend their time finding the right equipment that will make thir favourite spell combo as powerful as it can possible be, at the expense of other aspects of the character. Compare fine-tuning a character with fine-tuning a city? Then there are the aspects of group play which are impossible to simulate in a single player game - like coordinating your attacks and planning tactics, things that are comparable to playing Counterstrike or another team-based FPS. Not everyone wants to do this, but if you do then it adds another layer to the game.

It might be that the Episodes 1-3 were easier to make fun of. I mean there are parts in the films that are unintentionally hilarious. There were parts in LSW1 that were faily vicious in the contempt for the prequal trilogy, but maybe that's just my own bias shining through. It's less easy to turn the original trilogy into comedy because people actually like those films. I do know what you mean in general though. I think it's just because it's a sequal, and to be honest it's essentially more of the same. If the original trilogy game had come out first I expect we'd have enjoyed it more.

Maybe you have a mouse in your CPU?

My PC's have never exploded. Sometimes they refuse to work - right now my pc sometimes freezes and won't to boot up again, but I'm pretty sure that's something to do with the processor contacts. I just reach in ang jiggle a few components and then it's fine again for a few days. Anyway, yes, my PC's do not explode. Maybe I'm just better at building them than you and Spaff?

Yes! To me too. Also, the 16stone album by Bush sounds like Quake 1 Single Player.

I had to give up drinking coffee at work, as I realised I was so wired that I couldn't concentrate on any one thing for more than ten minutes. I once went out with a girl who drank so much coffee that she almost had a heart attack. She had extreme palpitations and passed out, and spent a day in hospital. Even when I knew her she had to go for a heart check-up every few months, and was obviously banned from drinking caffeine.

Um, it appears to be about cricket, and not games at all....

I'm not sure what you mean by the story being spread out though. The glowing tails increase your stamina circle. Fruit increases your health bar. Incidentally I was very pleased to discover that on hard mode several of the colossi have extra weak points* rather than merely extra health, meaning an extra stage to the battle. Once my brother is finished with the game I intend to play some time attack and unlock some stuff. *for massive damage.

Talking of which, I saw an inteview with Richard Pryor's daughter last night. She had a show on at Edinburough called "Fried Chicken and Latkes".

Oh man, I love that book. You're right, it does change the way you see just about everything. Then you go insane.

Which raises the new question: should Sony receive an award for hardware that stole patented technology? Or was that just in the DualShock2?

HA! and again HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!

QUOTED!

And what's with the "English guy's" voice? None of the other nationalities got given a horrendous fake accent!