Roderick

Orvidos, I can't quite understand whether you're ugh-ing at your friends for being killjoys, or at us for liking a silly thing like planking. It's not just silly by the way, it's now silly AND deadly

I just planked on my chair. It's fun!

And don't forget Ïngebörg Knäckëbröd!

I couldnt play blood money because it required 60 herz, which for some reason my tv decided it wouldnt give to this particular game. I just asked the io interactive people about the new hitorc and they couldnt tell me a goddamn thing. We will have to wait til e3

I would like to proclaim that Ed Fries of Xbox fame is jesus. I saw his keynote this morning on the Nordic Game conference. After a short introduction about his remarkable gaming history (you might be surprised) he spent fifteen wonderful minutes talking about the chronology of antiquity era Greek vases, and followed up with a discussion about evolutionary biology and the Cambrian explosion. This all tied into a point about selfimposed constraint in gaming being what we need, but not before explaining in exhausting detail how he programmed an Atari 2600 game about Halo and showed us origami dragons.

So, your relatives don't look at all like techno viking then?

I fear for their reaction! I have seen what I can only assume are vikings running around on the convention. I am dead serious, they have red beards and braided hair. Also, half of all the people I have seen here have huge tattoos all over their arms and shoulders. Is that a thing in these parts?

So, i am on the Nordic Game festival in Sweden (and the first thing that greeted me there was a Scientology stand with two cultists trying to get me to take a dianetics stress test) and so far it is great. What i would really like t talk about though is how ridiculously great the iPad is. This is the first time i have dabbled intensively with one and it has been such a good experience. It is fast, gorgeous, responsive and useful. I have taken huge notes during presentations, shown publishers my pitch and was able to woo everyone effectively with a parade of screenshots and movies. I tell you the truth, for business, the iPad is a game changer. It makes everything so much more simpler than carrying around a clumsy laptop. I saw so man iPads today, and the people who didnt have one all resented it. Now all I need is 500 Euro Points for one of my own instead of the company's...

Ah, interesting, this is just new? I saw some Hitorc stuff on the Nordic today, I will go ask them about it tomorrow.

It is a proper desire for a new type of games criticism, but obviously there is no need to scrap the reviews that so many do, and me too. They have their use, which is quite different from the goal of furthering games. Enrich the journalistic world, do not impoverish it.

Eeeeeeveryone's travelling! First thing tomorrow morning I'm off to Malmö for the Nordic Game convention. I can't wait to receive my first Crowns, and feel like I'm in Lands of Lore.

There's a lot of confusion on the matter. I've heard reports to the contrary to what you're saying. Suffice it to say it's an opaque system that could do with some clarity. Some glasnost, if you will.

I crawled my way through Bunny and the Bull just then. Even though it was made by the director of The Mighty Boosh and had guest roles for Julian and Noel my expectations weren't high -still it disappointed. A tedious film, filled with unlikeable characters

With Streetpass Mii's it is unfortunately the case that you need to 'tap' your visitors within the hour you receive them, otherwise they'll not give you a puzzle piece or go along in the Quest. I've gotten access to all the puzzles by the way. I really hope Nintendo will give us more content for the Mii's, DLC style.

Portal 2 gets better the more I play it. I'm on my 2,5 run through now and the characters keep growing on me. It's great stuff. Cave Johnson, we're done here.

I don't pay attention to tags, but I'm always apprehensive of this sort of humour. It does add a layer of perceived assholery, and we are better than that: we dare to be assholes up front and in your face.

Double dream feet!

I'm fairly excited about the NEScafé (that there's genius). But I reserve some enthusiasm. Firstly, this will be only Nintendo finally catching up with the current hardware. It remains to be seen whether Sony and Microsoft release new consoles of their own in the next few years, which might blow Nintendo's out of the water again, and we'll be in the same situation as we're in now: The Wii is ridiculously outdated. It was two years ago. Back when it came out, it was passable, graphically, and the newfangled controls smoothed things over. But the last few years have been an absolute disappointment. The games were shit, just shit. Besides a few first party titles, it's been an embarrassment. I own 7 or 8 Wii titles, no more. In comparison, I have thirty+ 360 games and I got that consoles after the Wii. It's just insane how crappy the Wii line up is, and the console itself has long since become completely obsolete. The NESCafé could be a step in the right direction. Will it be enough? Will it last long term? We'll have to see.

The tone of that article on America did more harm than good to me. It was Godwinning its way all the way to the point it was making, and came off sounding really smug and arrogant. I agree somewhat, but certainly not with all of it. The comparison with the Nuremberg trials is off. It was a different war, a different age and a different scenario. There were so many goddamn things wrong with those trials in the first place (not in the least place the fact that Russia and America both should have been made to stand trial as well for their respective war crimes; Hiroshima anyone?), it's a weird thing to say. And say that someone orchestrates a campaign of terror for two decades that completely changes the world we live in for the worse, is it really that surprising that America'd want to take no chances with him? Does it really fucking matter that Bin Laden was unarmed? I'm not trying to be the devil's advocate here. Was it politically and morally wrong what America did? Yes. Am I going to lose a minute's sleep over it? No. The points made about Guantanamo Bay, the extraordinary renditions and the pointless invasions of other countries are all true, and I will get mad about that. But shooting Bin Laden when they had the chance and dumping his body in the sea, well... it's tribal justice. That's not what we should be doing, by any means. But the word justice is in there, and there are way more pressing matters to get angry about. Please, please, please spend your moral indignation on something much worse than Bin Laden being dead. Preferably, without sounding like a self-righteous douche.

I'm playing through P2 again for the developer's commentary, and it's every bit as fun a second time. I'm also trying to get the singleplayer achievements. It's good. I'm already discovering way more secrets than I did the first time.

I dislike shaking hands for that as well. I guess what I'm saying is that I am actually Donald Trump.