Roderick

Come on down, Troy Goodfellow!

Oh, yeah, you are right in that there is a lot of BS in that community that I emphatically do not support. The more heinous aspects, which try to put down what you can or can't do, are reprehensible. But I think there is value in looking at these things as expressions of culture and what they say, and as such, they are art and you can make some critique on them. It's all in the tone of course. I mean, the first time I saw that picture I laughed hard and showed it to my mom. I think it's very successful, no matter how you spin it.

To not give the wrong impression, I'll reiterate that I'm not part of the cosplaying community (even though I do cosplay occasionally), and am only reflecting the discussions inherent to some parts of it. I try to be as little prescriptivist as possible, because, indeed, I fully agree with you, James, that people should do what feels best for them. As for the Goldeneye Cartridge, there is another point to make, which is that there are two currents of comedy at play here, and they shouldn't be mixed up. The first is the immediate joke, the one I think is the main attraction: here's a guy dressed up as a Goldeneye Cartridge. That's hilarious. I've seen cosplays of people dressing up as the painting of the pirate from the Spongebob Squarepants intro. I love that stuff. But then there is another joke that may be at play here (I personally think it is), which is: Hey look, I took all this effort to look like the Goldeneye Cartridge, but then I didn't do anything to look like Pierce Brosnan himself. This is jarring, and pretty funny as a result. If the purpose would have been only to go for the first bit of comedy, it would make sense to attempt the most faithful recreation possible, which is what leads me to the statement that in that case, the glasses are not ideal. It isn't about being prescriptivist, it's about understanding what someone is trying to attempt (artistically!) and then seeing how that goal is reached or not.

There's more of Mr. Moshi-Moshi, and specifically you should watch 0:34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WuP78X6H5JU MOSH!

Hey, I'm all about going wild and lots of variability in cosplay. I support that. But I think the thing that leads me to the belief that the Goldeneye Cartridge 'should' be faithful to Brosnan's visage (barring, like I said, specific comedy purposes), is that it's an image of Brosnan. There is no doubt that the guy is going for authenticity. The cartridge has clearly been made with lots of care. The pose has been carefully studied. He's wearing a movie-appropriate watch. Unless his intention is to go "Doink! And now I'm an Asian guy with glasses!", it doesn't fit that he wouldn't also take the same care to constructing the face in the most genuine manner.

Whoa, you're delving into some prime cosplaying ethics here. There are many discussions in the community (of which I'm not an active part, I should mention) about whether you need to physically look like a character to cosplay them - i.e. Sailor Moon should be a white/Asian, skinny, young person, not Bubba. However, unless you're going for comedy jarringness (as I suspect Goldeneye Cartridge Man is, since my comment is in jest), you should definitely make it a point not to wear accessories the person isn't wearing. That really does fly in the face of doing a good cosplay.

The amount of effort it took to produce and wear this ridiculous/magnificent costume is off-set by his unwillingness to not wear his glasses. "This thing took me thirty hours to create, but pfffsh I can't be arsed to wear contacts..."

I don't want to celebrate too early, but I had a really good time at a prospective employer today. Egads, and it's even for a position involving actual animation, the thing I literally studied for. Cross my fingers that all goes well!

It's clear from this evidence... that we should be playing Sid Meier's Covert Action. is the best advert slogan ever and preferable to any IGN.com nonsense.

In that case, a shop in the first level? I'm sorry!

I am so up for that!

I meant the retail game. I know this is a reworked version, but you should by all accounts be able to tell if the game is worth it in the first place. As for pricing, I'm hoping in the 10-15 euro range, since it's kind of not a spiffy new release, but it may well be 20.

If anyone is interested in the recent documentary about Minecraft, I wrote a bit on that: http://www.filmadeus.com/2013/01/minecraft-story-of-mojang-paul-owens.html

I'm kind of getting excited about the European eShop release of Nano Assault Ex. Been out in the americas for a while, but not in Europe, which is crazy since the developer (Shin'en) is German. Ah well. Pricing isn't known yet, but the game is probably pretty good.

Remember when the future used to be all about the Thunderdome? Now it's made of Lego.

Wat een schatje! Is dat je dochter?

Everyone's going to poop on me, but I love the combat in Assassin's Creed. Yeah, sometimes it is a little unpredictable, and yeah, you baically have a 'win' button if you time your ripostes right, but there are just so many ways you can attack and mess around with the bad guys. In Revelations you can stick bombs on them that explode in money, you have a hook that you can use to sort of slide over them and pull them along, you can steal their wallets while in combat, kick them, throw sand in their face... it shouldn't be this involved but it totally is. And you keep discovering new tricks. Oh and ironically you can throw the biggest, most lumbering weapons you have. It takes a while to gear up for the attack, but nothing beats flinging a giant cleaver at an enemy, hearing it Doppler through the air and landing in his chest. And then coolly pick up the weapon that's still lying there.

Nothing weird is going to happen.

Every time I start getting comfortable with that Rover picture, and think about how many video games I've played on other planets, I remember that that thing is on actual Mars.

It's a roguelike, so yeah, a lot of your loadout is going to be based on luck. However, there are a few known quantities. The first shop you visit in the first level will always offer a teleporter and a drone system, so if you want a build based on either, save your money for that. For the rest you'll just have to roll with the punches. Find an ion weapon? Good, now you're taking out enemy systems. Got an extra laser? Better. Beam weapon? Maybe not spend your money unless you know what you're doing.

MISSILE

I've expressed confusion about that Rover photo before: how did it take it?

Also depends on the book. The reason I've currently been almost non-existent in the Idle Book Club is that I'm fighting through Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, yeah, in French. That takes a while, I generally read 10 pages a day before having my fill. I will read shorter books in between though, but they really shouldn't be too hefty themselves.

It's funny how different this game is from Phoenix Wright, yet tonally they're twins.

Smart TV's are a complete dead end. There might be a small surge in their popularity, but they will prove another '3D', which was a CES darling for a few years and is now all but gone. THANKFULLY.