DanJW

I assumed the lack of vegetation was in part due to a nuclear winter that only recently lifted. As for the brownness - I think Fallout 3 started along the right antidote to this with the colourful skyscapes. But they didn't go far enough. If you have barren landscape then make the skyscape completely crazy!

The joy of exploration in Fallout 3 comes not from the landscape, but from the traces of human life. Every time you find an abandoned camp or a building with signs of occupation, you can piece together a little story about who was there and why. The detail in these cases is amazing, as some of the stories above show. There is the sense of intimacy that comes from stepping into what was once someone's personal space, even though that person is long gone and probably dead. In fact I would say that this is the central theme of Fallout 3; "The traces we leave behind and what they say about us".

Agreed, but all hail the PC version for being modifiable. Making the forests nicer was just one of the many mods I used.

Seems Jason Chen bought a stolen prototype iPod off someone. Then blogged it. Doh. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8645884.stm

There is a simple diagnostic test to see if this is the case: Squid Division; I am going to ask you a question. I want you to answer with the first thing that comes into your head. Are you, or have you ever been, The Night?

After a bit of a hiatus (while he films his new sketch show) Rab 'Consolvania' Florence has started posting again to Downtime Town! Video review of Horus Heresy and Summoner Wars and also a short text review of Starcraft: The Board Game. I love Rab. In a wrong way.

Don't say her name! Don't say her name! She comes when called... edit: that wasn't meant to be a pun BTW. But I guess it is one now.

One description I liked, was that the brain does not make choices; it makes judgements. You just weigh up which option is the best, then you take it. Although there is some evidence that our brains work on a quantum level, with eigenstates and all that, two states at once that collapse upon interaction. Early days on that research though. In any case, many congratulations Miffy; we are proud to call you a Thumb

lol theres no reel clowns on teh intrenet

File this under "unintentionally hilarious". Uqn23bEZXmQ We like to call you our ancient Family. As indeed you are. Conductors like to conduct. What I love is the sheer sense that this was free-typed into an IRC channel by some teenager, and is not something a real person, of any species, would actually say. Also this: antKzrygQyA

For that particular costume, you gain many many Idle Points

Yeah it tore it off. Luckily it wasn't my big toe nail, but the second toe from the end. A few days of swimming in the sea sorted it out, after the initial burning pain from the saltwater.

If I remember correctly, those jellyfish "feed" themselves by finding and navigating to recharge points. That is an amazing idea though. I would definitely go to visit a Robot Zoo. I wonder how much it would cost to set up such a thing, if one got support from the inventors of a few of them? NOTICE: PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE BIGDOG

I really like the dialogue in Wes Anderson's movies. The nuances bear repeated viewings. Of course they are not to everyone's taste.

Happy Birthday Nachimir! Knowing you, you probably did something awesome and creative Also to nolan, JonCole and hockeyman.

I have an alcohol uptake query. Or a story at least. Once, on holiday in Greece, I got fairly drunk on Ouzo (and some other stuff as well probably, but mostly ouzo). The girl whose family had put me up was also very drunk, and tried to go swimming. It was a bit of a beach party you see. Anyway we dragged her out of the surf, figuring it wasn't safe. So I had wet feet. So I took my shoes off After a bit of a walk home she gave me a bottle of water to drink. Now one of the things they say about ouzo is that drinking water on top of it will get you more drunk. This turned out to be true (is it Armchair? How?) I quickly went from being on the way to sobering up to swaying all over the place. I decided I needed to walk it off so started doing laps of the villa grounds. Apparently everyone inside could hear my drunken plodding. Eventually my stumbling coincided with a flagstone and I ripped my toe nail out. It would probably have been very painful if it wasn't for the ouzo. Lucky eh? I threw up a bit and was found on the ground under the olive trees, clutching my bleeding foot. It was a good holiday. My toenail grew back, but it's always been a bit wonky since.

Also this game appears to be aimed at an education setting, like a school. I remember my school having a couple of educational computer programs, on it's BBC micro and *********. Like the red circular guy called 'Pod' or something. You typed in verbs and he would act them out. He frowned at swear words. Or one that was a kind of simulation of sea-trading on the Spanish Main or something. Eventually everyone would run into torrential rain and sink. I can't seem to find these on the net. The point is that some educational games can be force-fed to children and they will actually lap them up, it being more fun than regular schoolwork. And if I am any indication, then they do actually stick in the mind too. On the other hand maybe times have changed and even young children are completely blasé about computers now.

Yeah it keeps coming back to terms like Serious Games (or Art Games for that set), because alternatives like Interactive Experience are just so horrible. 'Simulation' may just work, with a bit of crowbarring.

:tup: Superb!

These reasons are pretty much why I started doing it. that and just because I could. Quick bit of research suggests that this is a classic case of VRAM wearing out. I can try compensating with motherboard RAM or underclocking my GPU, but in the end I need a new graphics card. Can't really afford that right now.

Turned on my PC this morning and found huge coloured block artefacts across both monitor screens. I guess my graphics card is dying. Fuck.

I'm thinking that large lengths of the gut would have to be removed from each individual in order to turn three digestive systems into one. I'm not sure whether each individual 'segment' would get enough nutrition from this from normal food - they would need some kind of high-nutrient sludge. If they have the same blood type then circulatory systems could theoretically be linked too. Integrating systems like this has the even-more horrifying prospect of making it almost impossible for them to be separated. The more thought you put into it the more disturbing it gets.

Don't most Americans abhor relativism? They consider it liberal hippy communist bullshit or something. That's the impression I always got anyway. (Nature abhors a vacuum. From nature's point of view, vacuums totally suck)

And the other way, who is to say that dying and ending the game prematurely invalidates the experience? Failure is a perfectly realistic and meaningful situation, and one that games can possibly convey better than any other medium. Exactly. It is written in an artistic language that he does not understand, can't even see. Anything conveyed in the gameplay itself (we don't really have good enough terminology for all this yet, but things like freedom, restrictions, obstacles, verbs etc etc) is completely invisible to him. For the book metaphor, he would be reviewing it based on the illustrations alone. But this argument has become personal to Ebert now. It is something which defines him and so he is never ever going to have his mind changed. He needs to convince other people that he is right in order to validate his worldview. Or maybe he just needs column inches to fill and knows from experience that this subject has good traction.

I've decided that I don't understand why Ebert is even considered an important critic. A lot his film reviews that I have read have been terrible.