DanJW

Oh it doesn't look interesting. But it sounds interesting, if you like plot driven fantasy RPGs. If you don't then why would you even bother to comment?

Heh, yeah, it was a proper professional heist (just like in the movies!) At least one paper is reporting that they were wearing prosthetic make-up to disguise their appearance.

I really don't know. I'm an intermittent but long-time member of the Bioware forums. Even their community was a bit nonplussed. As a complete guess, it might be that their marketing team were unsure how to handle it. At first glance it Dragonage appears to be a derivative D&D style fantasy (witness the first few mentions on the Thumbcast). But there is some real interest and twists and 'meat' in there. Clearly someone thought the best way to show that was to... have a heavy... metal... montage... Yeah, I have no idea.

Welcome welcome

That's pretty despicable.

Wow, that quote highlights what a thoroughly evil bastard that guy was. edit: also I am overly irritated by the laziness of the graphic artist who simply mirror-flipped the "Being Peter Molyneux" poster in order to extend it.

Yeah from a purely environment-design point of view, the "limitless texture budget" really excites me. But damn does it look reminiscent of Fallout 3 at first glance. You wait ages for a nuclear apocalypse and then three come along at once. Oh well, it's all cool. The crappy designs you mentioned are all old footage mixed in with the new, I believe. Wait was that a miniature spider demon I saw at 01:26 ?

I had already heard good things about it and read some interesting interviews with the creators, but now I really must start watching this.

Hmm not really. I can think of lots of western animation that I enjoy, and on those shows there is nothing I don't like, or at least nothing endemic. I just think that Sturgeon's Law runs rampant through that medium. Mind you I think that about TV in general. edit: But I accept your point. A lot for the things you stated a distaste for may be forms of cultural shorthand in the genre/medium. I'm sure you have read McCloud's Underdstanding Comics, and so know what I'm talking about there.

I reckon animé is too big a genre to make blanket statements about it. Someone saying they hate animé is like saying they hate TV - chances are they just haven't found the bits of it they would like. Or maybe not. Obviously some types of animé are more common than others and more likely to be ported over to the English-speaking world, and it is probably those that we are talking about. I still think western TV animation is for the most part appalling, in comparison.

I have no idea Brkl. The only thing I can think of is that they want to drive people to play online, and splitscreen online would be prone to ghosting and other exploits. But it might just be an oversight or a developer time budget thing.

Yes, I rarely join random games of L4D now. Our own Tom Armitage nailed it perfectly in this article (hence my previous comment about a perfect game being a boring game).

Birthday: have a happy one!

hehe like I said, despite having observed these tactics and what-not, chances are that when I spawn as tank I will revert to "Raaaaahhhrr Dan smash! Dan chase puny hoomins! Come back Hoomins! Rahhr Dan dead rahhhhhhhhhhhhh poor Dan".

I asked around in the shops once for Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. No-one had heard of it. Another time I went out looking for Okami on the PS2. Seeing as the Wii version was imminent I thought it would be a good chance for them to sell off remaining PS2 stock or even (gasp) pick up second-hand copies. Most clerks had never heard of it. After checking their computers some of them discovered a fabled copy in storage, but after 5 minuteds out the back they couldn't find it. The most helpful was a girl. She had played Okami and enjoyed it and knew that the Wii version was coming. I instantly developed a crush on her as a result. Alas, her store also suffered from the phantom storage copy. In the end I ordered online. Frankly, I feel no sympathy for bricks-and-mortar stores losing out to online services, because they almost never sell me the game I want anyway. My cousin in Lancashire is now a teenager, confusing as I still think of him as being 10 years old. Anyway. He used to play Jedi Knight 2 and stuff on my PC when he was little, and now he has a 360 of his very own. At christmas we played some CoD4 deathmatch. He still has that kid thing where they assume that because you are an adult you therefore know nothing about anything cool and insist on explaining the game to you in detail, as you would an idiot. Then he trounced me multiple times. However, once I had adjusted to the molasses pace of console FPS, my years of Counterstrike experience came to the fore and I turned the tide; his better reflexes versus my diversionary tactics, traps and mind-games. It was fun times.

"It's like there's a National Socialist Party in my pants." - IGN.com

Playing as tank against a crew of survivors that are experienced and expecting you can be tough. Focussed fire from all four can bring you down surprisingly quickly. Here's what I've learned so far (and I often forget to use in the excitement of the moment). Don't chase a healthy survivor. They can outrun you. Only go for folks whose health is yellow, or preferable red. Unless you really do have one trapped in a dead end, in which case go wild on him. Then spin round and wallop his mate who just got too close (they often do when they think your attention is on someone else). As soon as a guy is down, go looking for the others. They will kill you before you can kill him outright, and anyway your zombie team-mates will finish him off (besides, a prone survivor is excellent bait for a rescue attempt). If they are all on green, throw rocks. Distract them long enough for your team-mates to start tying them up. Once they are busy dealing with other specials, then charge in. If they are shooting at you, take cover. While you have the timer-thing, it does last a decent while and you can hit them with rocks to reset it, so don't be afraid to hide and wait for a little while. If they can't see you, they don't know exactly where you are and it will freak them out, and then they make mistakes. Just don't let them leave you behind completely. Look for objects that you can bash around, like cars, tree-trunks or forklifts. These are deadly and also provide you with cover. Circle round behind one and then smash it at the survivors. Do it again. At the very least they will have to scatter, making them more prone to getting picked off by your fellow Infected

For what it's worth, your nonchalant stroll through the metal detector was hilarious and entertaining (ie it didn't end up killing us) A game of L4D without any mishaps at all is a boring game of L4D.

Aye, we lost Scratche too. A shame. We managed to rope a couple more folks into helping us carry on though, and it was a pretty close match I thought.

The easiest way to join is to befriend one or many of us on steam, and start up L4D at the designated time. Then simply click on a name on the bottom left corner of the menu screen. Looks like we will do fine for a versus match. If we go over 8 players then we can draw lots for a co-op campaign branch-off (no domino-effect falling on your swords to make space this time!).

Hand me my shotgun.

Brazil is maybe the most depressing film I have seen, but it also utterly fantastic.

I thought it was your sister, not you. There is a strong family resemblance though. The poor girl is so starved for attention that she posts soft-porn of herself on the web (you guys didn't see the other photos - I was actually slightly worried about being arrested after Yufster sent me a link to her photo album). The mystery girl that is, not Yufster or her sister. As far as I know. Spaff found them. Tut tut Spaff.

LIES

Is this Yufster's sister? I'm really confused.