Wrestlevania

Had a quick play with MCSkinEdit and came up with Cobra Commander.

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Ha! Wicked. Looks like a texture alignment fubar to me, so probably not something you've done. Probably.

Joined and my client crashed a moment or two later; hope I didn't crash anyone else, or the server. I noticed ys dropped out and back in again just before. Wonder if running Minecraft via Steam is a problem...

I actually found diamonds for the first time last night; I nearly did a wee... It started off with me coming back to a hillside that I'd started to carve a modest room out of at the weekend. Instead of continuing the room, I decided to start digging a huge mineshaft straight down. After about 20 minutes of digging, I struck on a sudden gap and decided to explore it... and it turned out to be a massive underground cavern complex, filled with underground rivers, lava and loads of fantastic resources (including the aforementioned diamonds!). 3 hours later, I decided it was time to look for a way back to the surface and then quit for the night. Stumbling around in the relative dark - I'd long since run out of sticks for torches - I suddenly came across a massive vertical rock face, which seemed to have a little natural light shining on it from somewhere. But then it went really dark again. Getting my bearings, I noticed a dull glow beginning above me and watched this grow for a minute. It's then I realised it was actually the sun, and, as it grew brighter, I discovered I was standing inside the base of a huge empty volcano! After spiral-tunnelling my way up around the edge of the volcanic shaft, I took a photo* looking down from the rim: This game seems to have an innate capacity for the wonderful. * Note the diamond pickaxe in my inventory.

You evil, wonderful, filthy young man... FUCKYES!!!

I've finished the campaign in co-op, but certainly wouldn't mind playing again. I've found no time to experiment with the SDK so far though.

I just finished it myself on Saturday. I didn't realise I left our co-op game with just the final two stages left to do--sorry about that. Overall I enjoyed the single-player campaign on Heroic. There were a couple of frustrating points - leading to a lot of replays - over the last level. The enemy AI might be clever and inventive, but the "friendly" AI is dumb as bricks; a support squad would land, panic, bunch together and then explode in a human firework from a single plasma grenade hit. Over and over and over... So, joypad-snappingly infuriating at times, but still a lot of fun (once I learnt to ignore friendlies and just keep plugging away with solo tactics). I really want to replay the game on Legendary with three other Thumbs at some point soon; I think that would be pretty special.

I'm beginning to find this all horribly addictive. I'm a little sad that you can't invite other players into your own instance and show them around, a la Animal Crossing. That would be amazing...

Anyone..? Bueller..?

Anyone up for some more racing later today?

Sunday lunchtimes PST (evenings GMT) would be ace for me, but lets keep things flexible!

Having not been overly enamoured with Halos 1-3 over the mid-term (I skipped Odious Tee for this reason), I'm really enjoying Reach so far. I played roughly 4hrs of the campaign last night, and the claims of depth and grace in Halo combat are finally starting to become apparent to me with this instalment. I can't tell if it's the level design or the AI refinements or the changes in the weapons - very probably all of it - but I'm finding Reach less frustrating and genuinely creative, as a player, compared to previous experiences with the series. Progression is smoother, scenarios less "choked" or prescriptive, and the opportunities to work through each engagement however you want are more apparent. I've started a new thread for Halo: Reach multiplayer, so shout out if you're up for some blasting with other Thumbs.

I'd argue the exposition isn't done that stupidly or clumsily in this instance. I think it's inaccurate to boil all of that down to 10 minutes of "good little audience, here you go" -- that's belittling the craft used to do it, not to mention how engrossing and carefully constructed everything is beforehand. Sells it a bit short, to be blunt.

I've been accused of being addicted to video games since I was a kid, such is the amount I've played in the past. But I'm no different--peaks and troughs just like everyone else. It's the same with any interest; films I've not been in love with for a while, but that's changed with a few amazing flicks I've seen recently. To my shame, after voraciously organising a lot of Thumbs multiplayer activities and pushing to keep them active, I got bored of the whole multiplayer gaming thing for a while earlier this year. Disappointments like Red Dead Redemption's two-dimensional multiplayer modes haven't helped much either. (I've also thoroughly neglected these forums, too, but in my defence I've had extra-large portions of Real Life to chew on for several months.) For me, though, my biggest passion for most of this year has been music again. And I mean "passion" as in "what am I doing with my life; is where I'm at now really what I want to do for the rest of my days?" Seriously, I'm giving more and more thought to jacking in everything and trying to get into radio and/or start my own record label perhaps. It doesn't help that my local (Bristol, England) music scene has exploded onto the global stage once again during the last 18 months or so. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be over the whole stupid idea come 6 weeks' time. And Halo Reach is out next week--only the second game I've been excited about this year, after RDR.

I'm... a bit slow on the uptake.

Possibly because it's more fantasy than biopic. Why this change has to be approached as a barrier by some critics - rather than an exciting new door to somewhere different - is a little beyond me. Jaded perhaps? The quality remains obvious, and the editing is consistently excellent throughout, too. There were no lumps or sideways slides in the narrative, and everything tied together logically and progressively, without sign-posting every detail or potential loose thread either (hence the twist catching me entirely by surprise). Anyway, fil--er, video games!

Couldn't sleep last Saturday, so thought it would be a great idea to watch Shutter Island. And I'm not ashamed to admit the film reduced me to a wet bag of snot and tears during . Why did this film apparently get ripped a new one by some critics? For once, it's a "twist" film where I didn't see the twist coming at all; the story was very well assembled, the casting excellent (Dicaprio is astonishing), and the music - after a rather alarmingly hammy opening twenty minutes - finally settles into a good rhythm. I thought it was superb, personally, but not something I could readily watch again any time soon. NB: Speaking of musical scores, I was very excited to learn that Clint Mansell worked on the soundtrack for Black Swan.

Can you imagine how mental the stock car race would be with 8 players..?

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We're kicking this off again in a few hours, at 12pm PST / 8pm BST. Tonight's possible highlight: a "sim damage" recreation of SEGA classic, Daytona USA... “Let’s go away!”

I would be unable to contribute to said shit.

One is "on the line," as they say, and shall be "logging on" in a few moments.

...so 8pm BST then? That's 12pm PST, no? I should be about. Gotten through that mountain of after-hours work I had piled on top of me. Oh and I went on holiday for two weeks an' all.

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