DanJW

Wow, at last a window into the mind of a straight A student. Look, there are plenty of students who don't get as many A's as you, who work hard and yet don't treat average grades as the end of the world, because really your school grades will be beyond insignificant by the time you reach 20. So stop whining. I little straight talking with your parents is also good for you. Hope it works out though.

Thanks Kolzig! I've newsed it

I vainly hoped Doug, I really did. Kingz, the books are by Ursula leGuin, an excellent sci-fi author. She wrote the original trilogy (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore) for older kids, but it's pretty damn deep and scary, and an excellent read for everyone. Her depiction of the School of Magic makes Harry Potter look like a nursary rhyme. It's fairly obvious that JK Rowling ripped off parts of it for her little moneyspinners. LeGuin also has the most solid theory of magic in any fiction I have come across. No silly mock latin spells followed by some fireworks, this is actual Firmament of Creation stuff. And the description of Ged's shadow and the nameless ones is the epitome of unseen terror (oh, and in the books Ged is his truename and Sparrowhawk his common name... I have no idea why they swapped this for TV). Also a description of the afterlife which is incredibly meloncholy yet fitting. Hell these books have so much good stuff that rises above most fantasy, breaking conventions and cliché, yet staying grounded and "real" at the same time. Read them. Everyone must read them!

Shuttit pipsqueak.

#afp is one of those things where, if you don't know what it means, you weren't there. If you weren' there then you're probably better off not knowing, 1987... seems recent doesn't it Jizmonkey? But actually 18 years ago. You know what scares me? That my kid brother is now 21. I'm sure there has been a mistake with the counting there.

Hi Jaz! You seem familiar - did you ever frequent the Bioware boards or #afp?

Yeah, me too. Maybe my RPG skills are just finely honed, but by that point in the game my character was so powerful that I cut down everything like a combine harvester through a field of pikmin. I was suprised when the most interesting boss battle turned out to be Darth Sion.

I think we have a KotOR 2 review coming up, but I'll say a little bit now. I enjoyed it a lot. The beginning was a bit slow and the game is hideously buggy, but when I got into the main game I realised something: KOTOR 2 has some of the best written characters I've ever seen in a game. I really wanted to know more about most of them. I enjoyed guiding the Handmaiden, treading carefully around Visas Marr while trying to convert her, and most of all trying to please Kreia while simultaneously trying to figure her out (note that most of the interesting characters are female... possibly a first for games). The ins-and-outs of the interpersonal politics almost reminded me of the later Dune books. And then there is Darth Nihilus. The little hints about him during the game had me completely terrified when I came to meet him. Unfortunately, it's almost exactly at that point that all the excellent character writing went out the window and the game was rushed to its conclusion. The reason why I think everyone hates the ending is not because it is bad, but because it smacks of so much wasted potential. If any game deserves a Director's Cut Edition, it is this.

Hol shit, is that a screenshot from the sequal? No really, for a split second as I scrolled the page down I thought it was.

I think it might make more sense once we know who the bird is. Also, what about Pass the Bee, or whatever it's called?

hah, the short blurb is like something out of TVGoHome:

Hang on, hang on, Rosie and Jim have only been around a few years haven't they? How old were you Yufster when this happened? 14? or was it last week? It doesn't really matter anyway. I got scared last night when I thought there might be a maggot living in my eyebrow.

Ahahahahahah, read the bit where the BBC reporter thinks that Peter Molyneux's Game-design Challenge entry The Room is an actual game soon to be released by Lionhead. Hah, not just BBc reporter either: "Owain Bennallack is the editor of Develop magazine"

DS + Transformers = WIN

The Z-Boz? I like it!

Please expand on this.

But is this really really true? We talk about gettig more non-gamers into the games, and maybe it is this sort of cliché that is putting them off. A bit of interest and innovation, something which tells them "this isn't just another hack-and-slash digital pap for your 12-year-old", that might be a good thing. Hmm?

The power to raise the dead.

That does indeed suck. Howver, remember that in Britain many of the best games (did I hear you say "Katamari Damashi"?) are not available. Also, it is useful to look at the BAFTAs as being fairly lowbrow - these are awards for the casual and non-gamers to look at.

Hah, those people will be in for a nasty shock when Blizzard's "honour system" comes online. Not only will they be generally advertised as being crap, but they will be attacked by the NPCs on their own side

Except that the word "shadow" is right at the top of goddawful must-be-avoided game title clichés.

Those health reasons are all rather vague. Maybe it's something to do with a sandy environment. In fact there is a charity organization that claims that circumcision is mutilation that can affect a man's sex life, and should be banned (I believe they even have treatments that can help... regrow it )

I pulled this from another site's forum - I probably can't say which one. Upon this forum is a member who facnies himself as a bit of a film critic...and indeed I do enjoy reading his reviews. Oh yes, very much so. Here is his latest. I hope you enjoyed that, because I have more to hand...

Also movie related is this blog.It makes me laugh

Neverwinter Nights (Buy the platinum edition and just play expansion stories that come with it - the campaign that came with the original box isn't all that great, but give it a shot if you enjoyed the hack-and-slash of Icewind Dale). The best thing about NWN is nwvault.ign.com . Since the game comes with the Aurora engine toolkit there are hundreds of pro-am modules to download and play. You need never run out of a fresh storyline again! Plus there are some excelllent RP servers that host persistant worlds for NWN - essentially an MMO on a smaller scale, hence more focused and personal.