Thyroid

They're different. (I've read ten of the Poirot books and all the Holmes ones.) The major difference is that Poirot looks at mystery as a jigsaw puzzle he needs to solve - he's completely detached. Agatha Christie is a bit more light-hearted than Conan Doyle, even if her humor sometimes falls flat. Holmes has all the world to suspect, and has to track people down; Christie likes the "whodunit" locked room mystery that has 5-10 suspects. The biggest fault with Christie, though, is that her characters are all based on literary archetypes, and not real humans. You know the drill: someone will do anything, absolutely anything, for love; a girl will find her heart beating for the dashing rouge. It's rarely affected the main plot directly, though it's offered a couple of red herrings - unfair ones, perhaps. On the other hand, a lot of the mysteries are pretty good, and I can recommend The Mysterious Affair at Styles (free), The Murder at the Links, Peril at End House (which I solved before Poirot did, hehe), and most especially The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (though do read that last). The best thing I can say is that her books are fun enough to be read in one sitting. I'm also fond of the classical English gentlemanly attitude which seeps through them, so extra points for that. The Princess Bride is great. It's both a satire and excellent example of swashbuckling high adventure. I was surprised by how good it was.

Source. Bobby Kotick, seen here a mere minute before weeping with joy. Notice the reddening eyeballs.

It's something I've indulged in myself, though I hated myself when I was doing it then, and I hate myself for doing it now. Either way, the community doesn't really harm your perception of a game if you stay far away from it. I love Harry Potter, but I'll be damned if I can stand the fans. Same with Monkey Island, Half-Life, any goddamn movie...Man. Fans suck.

Oh, I'd been hoping that you were part of the dev team. I'm still on Ben There, Dan That (haven't touched Time Gentlemen, Please! yet, but I bought it), and I like what I've seen so far. Keep up the good work!

Bringing this thread out of retirement with the power of my mighty bump. The young men are angry at Blizzard's thoughtless decision to not include silicon tit. I bet she doesn't even have a lesbian sex scene either. I prefer the old Diablo games. I could masturbate to those women all day. Coming...coming...came.

Activision now have a third studio to make even more Call of Duty games. Better graphics! Bigger weapons! Explosions so extreme they'll come out of the monitor and whiplash your pants. KABOOM. VIDEO GAMES. These two men just came. Gamers extraordinaire.

I know I'm in the minority, but I dislike the use of diaries. They strike me as being lazy, another way of doing cutscenes. There has to be a better way to tell backstory in an FPS.

I don't think I'll ever understand why people like Bioshock for the plot, especially the part where you kill one boss, only to discover that the real boss is still out there. And bigger. Badder. I haven't seen that before. And he's almost dangerous - almost. Through the scientific method of trial and error, I discovered that Atlas, in his fire, ice or electric forms, could be destroyed by a measly wrench, and not a strong wrench either. He could also be destroyed by baby pistols, bows and arrows, plant spray (insecticide?) and some randomly thrown mines. Anyways, I also don't get the love for the deep moral dilemma of whether or not to murder brainwashed little girls. I mean, would I murder the Hitler Youth? Would I not murder the Hitler Youth? I think I'd like to sit down, have a cup of of intellectual coffee - tea - and mull it over. For reals, though, they're lazy enough to name the guy Jack Ryan. That's not exactly nose-to-the-grindstone narrative.

Destructoid: "Heavy Rain wishes to be compared to movies, but it is very lucky to be a Video game, where poor narrative is more readily forgiven." Not sure what they mean, since most movies that eventually arrive at cinemas have pretty shitty writing, but fine. The reviewer is pretty undecided about a lot of things. "If anything, Heavy Rain deserves to be played simply to see the potential of games in this style. In the hands of better writers and the throats of better voice actors, a game like Heavy Rain could be absolutely amazing. This particular game is good in many ways, and is truly a trailblazer, but it falls short of its own ambitions, possibly because it thought it was so clever that it didn't try harder. The game's plot is awful in many ways, yet it still made me wrack my brains over who the Origami Killer may be. The gameplay is more smoke-and-mirrors than life-or-death, yet it still shook my nerves and provided me with some fast-paced excitement that I won't soon forget." The bit about the "better writers" is so true, though. Lame-as-impotence writing going on in that game. Anyways, Eurogamer is a bit happier with it, even if the review read as more of a 7 to me. What really irks me is that there is so much potential here that David Cage never even thought of. I mean, the FBI guy . There's so many bits like that...gah I hate you, David Cage.

I don't know why publishers opt for one of two extremes: the boring, repetitive sequels and licenses, or the all-out "New franchises! NEW FRANCHISES!" More interestingly, both tactics presume that you just have to release the big AAA tiles in Q4. There has to be some smart theories on Gamasutra or something that explain why that is.

Yeah boy.

This, my friends, is one sexy horror game. You have to buy this (too bad there's no demo), it's pretty off, very indie, very artistic, and very Idle Thumbs. Bonus: there are people demanding it be banned. If that isn't a five-star Hot Coffee recommendation, I don't know what is.

My methodology is both similar and different. I always have a certain list of books I want to read before the year is over, but I choose based on my mood. So, right now, I have Miami Blues (noir/crime), A Spot of Bother (slice of life/drama), The City and the Stars (sci-fi), The Briar King (fantasy), The Girl Next Door (horror/crime) and Girls Fall Down (no idea) on my list (among others). I'm reading Dark of the Moon. When that's done, I'll feel like reading something, but whatever that something is, I'll pick it from the list. I usually leave the ones I know will be good towards the end, so that when I feel like reading fantasy and only have noir to choose from, I at least make sure it's noir so awesome I just have to read it. It drives those dragons right out of my head. This has paid off on several occasions. Slaughterhouse-Five, Perfume and The Big Sleep are among my favorite books, and I read all three when I'd been itching for something different.

How'd you play the demo? E3? Apparently it's not out on PSN till the 11th.

Advice worth heeding.

The more I see, the less . That kid has got to be the stupidest motherfucker this side of Bedlam. He may qualify as being legally retarded.I think I am going to buy this game and then just try and break it. Just run in the opposite direction or something. See what happens. As it is, it looks like playing by the rules will just bore you to death. (PS: David Cage: get a half-way decent writer for your dialogue, you chimp.) (PPS: Also, those characters look like they have plastic bags over their faces. Some creepy-ass, punk-ass shit going on there.)

This is shit advice but, it works for me. (CV/experience: 5 ex-girlfriends, though I never lasted an entire year with any of them.) Anyways, don't think of them as "women" or even "pretty" or "attractive". Think of them as, you know, "Amanda". Or "Jane". Next thing you know you're charming and funny and even, uh, "sweet" (whatever that is). That - and never, ever saying the word "friend" - has worked for me.

Looking forward to some good ol' decapitation. Lemme know when you're up for it.

Probably just a case of typical Japanese modesty. I wouldn't put much stock into it.

Don't play the multiplayer until you get to the part in the campaign where the song "Mr. Crowley" plays. You'll know it. I'll gladly play against you on Fridays (first day of our weekend), though I should mention that I kinda suck. We're on a GMT+2 timezone. I'm BewareTheMoon on PSN (Kroms was taken, and I was watching The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the time).

The comments alone should give you an idea about living in this country. I don't know if this is hilarious, or depressing. kUXsw3n_iCA

These are pretty great. I'd love some of those t-shirts.

Cheers, Thunderpeel. I needed that boost of confidence Thanks to everyone who read, and everyone who replied. I'll upload any decent short stories I manage to crank out for you to read.

Haha, that's awesome. I'm doing something along the same lines, and with a somewhat similar reading list (for example, I'm reading Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders - started today, 100 pages to go - and have a few novels of Arthur C. Clarke to work through). What are those red ones, though? And what Hemingway book is that?

Do I have to play the first one to get this? I'm too lazy to Google. The mechanics are apparently the first one improved, so. Can't be bothered playing two of the same thing. Should I just skip this one and get the first?