Nappi

I have played something like six missions so far and haven't been blown away yet. I am not sure what I expected from this game. I guess I thought I would be so awestruck by the production values that I would forget that "traditional" RTS games might not be my thing anymore (I got tired of the new Red Alert in five missions or so, for instance). Even though none of the missions I have played so far have been that typical, everything just feels a bit too familiar, and I haven't even touched the original Starcraft. I also hate haste in games and this game seems to be all about haste. The ship is pretty neat and it feels nice to be able to "relax" there for a bit after each mission. I would probably talk with the members of the crew too, like I did in Mass Effects, if most of the characters weren't so stupid. For example, who the fuck let Egon on my badass ship? I appreciate things like stubbing out the cigars on the monitors, though. Still, the game is pretty enjoyable and I will hopefully complete the single player campaign one day this year. I hate my pile of unfinished games.

Towards the end of Assassin's Creed II I was anticipating that things would become totally ridiculous soon, so when the total ridiculousness finally kicked in, instead of "What the hell is this?" I was thinking "Yey.. I beat a game" and paid very little attention what actually happened. Still, the ending was a bit worse than I had expected.. and my expectations were very low already.

Ahh.. Overworld areas. Could be interesting. Although I enjoyed the original, the sequel really has to offer something more than just a new 30-level dungeon to explore before I will buy it.

I played a shitload of this with my friend back in the day. We had some awesome tactic to beat the game, but I don't remember it anymore. It might have involved things like first almost starving to death and then going to the burger house to eat a ton of fries so that you wouldn't waste time by walking back and forth all the time. It's interesting how many of us played a stressful rat-race job simulator as a kid. I think I would only feel depressed if I played it now.

Yes. Congratulations and fuck you Chris on your new job at the games industry. Also, 'Where have all the cyborgs gone?', indeed..

No. I have the PC version. For some reason I had at some point created two EA/Bioware accounts and accidentally used the wrong one on OS X to purchase the DLC. I could log in with that account on Mass Effect 2 and activate the DLC if it wasn't for the fact that I had activated the Cerberus Network stuff on my other account. I can't open a save game while using that other account because of Zaeed and the other Cerberus stuff. It might all be under control now, though. EA customer service guy said he could transfer the DLC to my other account and just needed some more information.

I bought 1200 Bioware points, and the Overlord DLC, on a wrong account. Now they are completely useless.

Just finished Mass Effect 2. Cool game.

Just finished this yesterday. What a polished piece of gaming. I liked most of the changes Bioware made compared to the original (especially the ones that made the actual gameplay not be shit this time around). The recruitment and loyalty missions were mostly very well done and it was interesting to learn about your crew members' past. I'm really looking forward to playing Mass Effect 3 now. While I'm waiting for my copy of Starcraft II to arrive, I might actually want to play Mass Effect 2 some more. Are any of the paid DLC worth getting? I think someone somewhere enjoyed Overlord. Could this be true?

Quick question: Do the marines keep on smoking the cigar inside their helmets when the visor is closed? If so, I will buy this game immediately. If not, I will still have to consider.

Yeah, that is probably true. I have actually started playing the game twice, once on PC and once on iPhone. The beginning (first four rooms or so) wasn't particularly interesting and both times I had lots of other things to do, so I just sort of didn't continue playing it. I will probably find it enjoyable once I force myself to play the game for an hour or so first.

Health bars!? Looks and sounds very interesting! Makes me want to have the energy to start playing Beneath a Steel Sky.

Wow, three casts in two weeks! Glad to see the podcast is becoming regular again!

Inception was fantastic! I appreciated how it didn't assume the audience was completely dumb but at the same time didn't pretend to be overly smart itself either by hiding things from the viewers. The bird eye view shots of various cities were really beautiful. I guess Nolan might have a thing for city architecture especially considering that My single favourite thing in the movie, however: the van falling in slow motion. Majestic! I was instantly reminded of the beginning of video which I had enjoyed so much before. I'm not quite sure what is so fascinating to me about falling slow. Maybe it reminds me of life or something, I don't know.There could have been a bit less action towards the end, though. That is pretty much my only complaint about the movie.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I really appreciate it! Seems like, I'll have to look into this some more. The Prestige and 2001: A Space Odyssey intrigue me the most at this point. Perhaps I will get Altered Carbon, as well. How is Stanislaw Lem's Solaris? It sounds interesting.

What is the next best thing? I have seen the movie and knowing the "twist" I'm not sure if I can be bothered to read the book too. Unless it happens really early on or something...

Oh.. Then you should probably preorder it.

Were the console controls really bad or just not as good as mouse and keyboard? Is the aiming worse than, say, in GTA IV or Uncharted? I would buy this game on PC but I'm afraid that my Macbook Pro won't be able to run it properly. It's not plugged to an 5.1 sound system and huge TV screen, either. The first game is still easily one of my favourite games of all time. I would still recommend it; I think it might have aged well, although it's some time since I last played it. Not sure if it's available as a download anywhere, so it might be tough to find it, though. Mafia II sure looks and sounds good but I haven't played it, so I don't know whether or not you should preorder it. I would be very surprised, however, if a game that promising turned out to be a complete piece of crap.

Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies was . Something didn't feel right about the way it was written. Might have been partly due to the Finnish translation, though. I'm currently reading Kotona Maailmankaikkeudessa (Home at the Universe) by Finnish astronomer Esko Valtaoja and listening to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (and brilliantly performed). I thought I might try reading some sci-fi next. What would you recommend? I have enjoyed things like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Sirens of Titan, Moon (movie), Sunshine (movie) and Mass Effects. I didn't like Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles or Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip too much. And I really don't care about humans fighting alien savages in some planet to save a princess or something. Some modern classic maybe?

I got "You write like Dan Brown" from my hurried post on Mass Effect 2 thread. So take that Dan Brown. On the other hand, the introduction of my bachelor's thesis got me William Shakespeare. It was on luminous efficacy of lamps. And in Finnish.

I decided to play as an infiltrator. Good thing most of the battles are designed so that they can be dealt almost entirely with a sniper rifle (compared to Mass Effect 1 where, occasionally, enemies were in your face immediately after the cutscene, which you had to watch over and over again if you died). I have a feeling that I would be using tactical cloak and fireball a lot more if was playing with a gamepad. Reaching for num keys just doesn't feel that natural to me yet and so, for the most parts, I'm not using any of my talents in the battles. I will probably learn to use them better when I start to get raped by my enemies harder.

Okay, so I actually completed Red Dead Redemption today. What a weird design decision.

Skimmed through the thread, but it was mostly covered in black bars so I didn't get much out of it. How is the infiltrator class in Mass Effect 2? Will choosing it make the combat a pain in the ass? I played through the first game as a soldier and the sniper rifle felt completely useless most of the time. Is it any better in Mass Effect 2 or is it still the most inaccurate gun in the game? Can I live without the assault rifle and heavy weapons? In Mass Effect 1 I had a full biotic and a full tech squadmates because I didn't like casting spells and it worked out great. Will that still work or would I need extra firepower if I decided to play as an infiltrator?

Two "missing" chapters before the final act were released as DLC on consoles. I guess/hope they put them in their correct place for the PC version. That is why Chris probably didn't notice beating the game (because he didn't). Assassin's Creed 2 without the DLC didn't feel too long to me, but the two chapters add several hours to the gameplay so I understand why you might feel tired. That was something I was really hoping to do in Assassin's Creed 2 and was really disappointed when I realized I couldn't. Some E3 gameplay walkthrough I watched seemed to suggest that there will be even heavier focus on combat in the next game. The sneaking in AS2 was still very enjoyable to me even if I couldn't drop grand pianos on my enemies, and it would be a pity if there was even less of that in the next game.

I'm not a big fan of horror movies but for some reason I have watched quite a lot of them recently. The only one I really liked was The Orphanage from 2007. Not sure if it even qualifies as a proper horror movie but the atmosphere was great and chilling pretty much throughout the entire movie.