Roderick

And as usual, the bitter ramblings of those of us inable to attend will continue also.

But is it really a law? To me, a law seems to indicate something you can put into a formula of some kind. Evolution is more like a... system. But whatever. There's also the Law of God, so in the end it's all wordplay. But if it works... well, it might be worth a shot. But yes, it's immensely infuriating that people don't believe in science, like it's something you have to choose for. It's like saying 'I don't believe this microwave is going to heat my sausage roll'. Well, you might say that all you want, but it's going to work anyway. It's science. Not gospel.

So, basically, Obama's been winning all the primaries ever since Super Tuesday. Do we have our next Democrat candidate? Interestingly enough, on the Republican side, Huckabee has been giving McCain a rough time, stealing his victories at the jaws of his enemy. The last thing I want, and what the world needs, is an American president who chooses not to believe in evolution Man, I just have to repeat: Also, McCain is a brand of French fries over here. So he's the French fries candidate!

Yeah, Gun disappointed a little, yesno? It's on sale for a measly 20 Euros everywhere, but who cares; if it's a mediocre game I don't want it anyway. I can't remember ever having a lot of problems with the controls of GTA 1 and 2. But what I find interesting is that maybe the age difference is in effect here? I'm about 3 or 4 years older than you, Miffy, so perhaps when I was in the 'hell yes blowing up cars!!' phase it was just when GTA 1 came out? =) Then again, I still enjoy blowing up cars -hell yes.

Very true. I also liked the schlocky announcer with his 'kiiiiill frenzy!' and 'massive damage!'. Ha, I do get it wouldn't fit the 3D games though, I'm just saying.

Man, I really had so much fun with the first two GTA's. They're so arcadey and in a way offer much more fun and games, and crazy stuff you can do. Just things like lining up stacks of cars and blowing them all up,selling cars at the harbour, finding the tanks, and the walking queues of elvises or Hara Krishna's... GTA3 was so pale and serious in comparison.

Also, 1st person shooters not working on a console was disproved since the last generation Keep up with the program!

Hahaha, that's superb. But there were actually much nicer costumes around. Here's a picture from the Amsterdam raid: This is more along the lines of Anonymous. Classy suits and afros

I'd love to get a cool little castle. France is full of them. Some big mansion. But what you describe, Marek, sounds great. I'd personally definitely go for a secret underground lair with a table with a revolving top showing a miniature of whatever strap of land was my current target. In all seriousness, I'd go for a home theatre. Nothing like this guy has, but more along the lines of one of these.

The worldwide protests were mostly a success: Scientology is in the news again, in the way Anonymous wants. So everyone will know they're a crazy cult.

Lifebars are so passé.

I'm a little confused here. Is this retarded and despicable because the material isn't actually worth 6 million, or because you personally wouldn't buy it yourselves and think it's a waste and he should give it to the poor? In that last case, your judgements are disturbing and patronizing. Who cares what some millionaire spends his money on? He can afford it, he's worked hard for it. You deciding what you can't or shouldn't buy, now that's despicable. But this is probably about the stuff not being worth 6m, in which case I'm sorry for the moral high ground on your moral high ground =)

GTA's are meant to be completed?!

Oh, and I just remember something else.

I just finished Bioshock, so I finally read the editorial. I was pining for it for a long time. The amusing thing is, in light of the negative tone of the introduction I was totally ready to denounce this article, because I was having an amazing time while playing the game. Now that I've finished it, I complete agree with everything that's been said. After the Andrew Ryan scene, it all just goes haywire. Even the shades of grey disappear. I'm reading Atlas Shrugged at the moment, which inspired Bioshock, and up until That Scene it really shows. There are hugely interesting things being said and implied. The banners saying 'the strong will not be held back by the weak' and such are fantastic. But I think what I would have liked as well was more backstory. More information, be it through diaries or even Oblivion-like books, about how Rapture was built, how it was all done. Now it's this megalomaniacal bubble of fancy, but never really believable. As it is, I still think Bioshock is a fantastic game. The gameplay and the setting are just superb. Despite it shortcomings and the game tumbling off the Babylonian tower of its own construction, it's a swell game. But it's better when you play it the first time through than when regarded from hindsight. Still, a marvellous adventure which I hope will inspire other games to be as ruthlessly deep. More ruthless, even. (I think it's funny by the way that the editorial greatly emphasizes the game referring to itself, to gaming, in the Andrew Ryan scene. Absolutely justified, but it can just as easily be taken as a 'normal' philosophical statement, without the gaming context. It's just professional deviation, I suppose. We see what we want to see )

I certainly don't mind a bit of GTA myself, though I confess to having played the first two a serious lot more than the 3D versions. What I look forward to most is seeing how they've attempted to make GTAIV 'next-gen'. As in, improve on the more or less oldfashioned devices of the earlier titles. As far as I'm concerned, they can't get away anymore with just more of the same, only bigger. They'll have to introduce some pretty nice new ideas if they want to keep it fresh and be able to compete with modern games. But exactly how far can you push the sandbox genre? With any luck, we'll find out in April.

That 3D soap is excruciatingly good and excruciating. I'm literally squirming in my chair to get away from it every time =D

Congratulations! I was gone this weekend, so it's a little late, but you know you had it comin'.

I disagree. I love it that I have a funny little video to watch every wednesday. But you're acting like it's this atrocious thing, where they're actually of surprisingly good quality considering they're weekly and not, you know, the guy's job. I know you don't hate it or anything, but you're overreacting. This is way better than a monthly vid that everyone forgets soon after. It's not like he's aiming for Oscarworthy material.

Actually, this sunday there's going to be worldwide protest rallies in front of Scientology churches, organized by Anonymous. I don't necessarily agree with their methods, but I do think it's good that more attention is being forced upon the unwholesome practices of scientology.

Great fun =)

Never really heard of this one. The videos inform me it's pretty much a standard fps, but your reviews says I'm wrong. It doesn't really have that Deus Ex vibe, wouldn't you agree?

I've just started playing Bioshock on the 360, and it's well worth whatever you have to do to be able to play it =) I'm having such a good time, my brain is collapsing in on itself.

So I finally have my Xbox 360 and it hasn't yet exploded, and this weekend I got a few games for it in the bargain bin. Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Overlord. I've been playing a bit of Overlord and it's great! I love the extremely detailed landscapes with a lot to see and interesting winding roads everywhere. I don't mind at all that the areas themselves are small, because this way the developers were able to really make everything interesting and 'designed'. No kilometers of samey landscape like in the huge worlds of most MMO's. At the same time, it surprises me how tricky it can be to find out where you're supposed to go next or what to do. The game is rather linear and the areas as I said small, but still I got stuck multiple times during my five-or-so hours of play. I like it; it poses a challenge. I also like that there's no map. Let me explain that, because it does have its drawbacks. Of course it's less convenient to navigate and you'll get lost a few times when you enter a new area. But the effect is that you feel a lot more involved, the world feels far more alive, breathing, bigger than it really is. It usually bugs me in games that feature a good map that I spend far too much time looking at it. It makes a game more abstract. The world itself becomes iconized and smaller, because you see on the map exactly how it runs and where it ends. The illusion is broken. This is particularly true for a game like Oblivion, where there's actually gameplay on the map (teleportation), completely ruining any sense of scale and exploration. But the areas in Overlord force you to explore them on your own and make a mental map of them based on the way roads run and landmarks. It's trickier in the beginning, but endlessly more satisfying in the end. It won't be suitable for any game, but I say; let games be less dependent on maps! Of course, there are some problems with Overlord. The game falls just short of reaching Nintendo levels of smoothness; with some puzzles getting not enough hints so you don't know what to do, and some weird pacing issues (I had to skip back and forth between two areas with a completely different atmosphere and quests to finish them both, which feels very jarring and contrived). The controls are surprisingly smooth if you look at the amount of stuff and micromanagement you can and have to do, but they can still befuddle you in a hectic situation, requiring far more deliberate thinking than is allowed at some moments. The game makes up for these nibbles plentifully though, with its heaps and piles of charm and little touches like your minions picking up just about anything and using it as weaponry and armour. And I just went into a forest filled with dead, incredibly emo elves lamenting just about everything about their existence in overwrought, pretentious oneliners. Delicious satire!

I've finished the game at 30-odd hours. Near the end it seems like the game gets a little bit sloppy, it could have used a trifle more polish, but it never detracts from the charm. Overlord then, despite its rich settings and well-designed micro-management ideas, remains a diamond in the rough on exactly the areas that other, often uninspiring games, do get right. That, when you defeat a boss, you get a satisfying climax with good audio. Things like that. Overlord is a bit crude in those respects, but it really makes up for it with massive charm. The ending may have been a bit unpolished; the ride was fun throughout. Never a boring minute.