Gwardinen

Update: Turns out I can't play BF3 right now because Origin is on the fritz. Woo, always on DRM. It's the way forward you guys.

I'm somewhat interested. I never really played the older Tribes games, but I'm curious as to what all the fuss is about. Do we have ways to play together, so that I can hide my noobitude behind other people's noobitude?

Yeah it's surprisingly entertaining, but as miffy said it is genuinely a pretty short game. If you enjoyed the first one you'll probably enjoy the second, as I barely remember there being any changes (other than the mostly cosmetic dual wielding of lightsabers).

So I finally picked up Battlefield 3 as I found someone selling a code for the Russian version on eBay for £17. Some English language files later, I can now play with you guys! Please tell me people are still playing.

Actually, my position on this whole thread has now returned to "reveal trailers are stupid". They never tell us much of anything and based on the responses here, what gets inferred from them is radically different between different people. Thinking about it any further seems like it can only end up in profound disappointment for someone, so I'll return to waiting for actual information.

Yeah, though I actually think it makes it funnier too. I'm often just about to chuckle at something in the Big Bang Theory when the laugh track sparks up and it kind of derails my own humour response. It can be rather grating until I watch enough that it fades into the background.

George Takei is amazing. Also, I totally did not see the complete segue into bashing coming.

Where the hell are you getting all this from? By video preview do you mean there's an actual preview up somewhere or are you referencing the trailer? If you're referencing the trailer, do you really believe it's fair to attack the likeability of the characters and the story? I mean, it's two minutes long and it's a reveal trailer, come on. Also, that "this character is probably based on an actress that I happen to not like" criticism is sort of out of left field as well. If there's an actual preview, please link it and give me the chance to see if I agree with any of the character/story stuff you mentioned.

Yeah, I have a little progress in Restoration. I have the first rank of that perk that increases magicka regen. I also have both magicka cost reductions for Destruction and increased magicka regen from all of my gear, but it's still not really enough. This is definitely the weak point of playing pure mage.

I kinda want to play this game more but three things are stopping me: 1) The combat system isn't great to begin with and only gets more boring/irritating as time goes on. I'm in a particularly annoying situation right now where I have the expert-level Destruction spells (which are basically powered up versions of the apprentice-level spells) but don't really have enough magicka to use them consistently. So I usually end up using the apprentice-level spells anyway, which is somewhat boring, mildly ineffective and probably stunts my levelling of the skill. 2) I tend to play it on my TV because playing it in a 5:4 ratio on my monitor isn't particularly brilliant, and the TV is significantly larger as well. I'm doing this more and more with PC games that I use the gamepad to play (as I do with Skyrim because of the dodgy UI for mouse and keyboard). It does mean that it's kind of a hassle to actually set it up and start playing, though. Nothing crazy but the extra minute or two of screwing around makes me even less likely to just go "screw it, let's do some Skyrim!" and double-click the icon. 3) There is so much stuff in that game. I'm more than 50 hours in and I've still not done much of the main quest, or the Thieves' Guild or Dark Brotherhood quests. I'm part way through the Companions' line and have completed the College quests, but there are still at least two holds that I haven't even been to yet either. It's kind of intimidating, and tires me just thinking about it, which makes me shy away from actually running the game and trying to get through some of it. Edit: Oh, I haven't even started the Imperial Legion line either. I've decided on them because I'm an elf and the Stormcloaks are super racist, but that's about it.

It's an interesting direction for Naughty Dog. I'm intrigued. Sadly, the trailer really tells us nothing worth knowing about what the game itself will be, so that's all I can be right now.

Yeah, that uh... that was an interesting one for sure. Basically any time the person you pointed out as Victoria Jackson was speaking I found my eyes just growing larger and larger in amazement, until I realised that both she and I were locked into huge full eyeball stares. It started becoming very creepy.

Are you sure that Victoria Jackson isn't parodying the situation? It's hard to believe her behaviour is serious. I dunno... I sort of don't want to talk about that video. There are a very, very few worthwhile points raised in it, and I do feel like the way Christians are treated in modern western society is often hypocritical. Additionally, it is a little too easy to marginalise "conservatives" (using the American version of the word) as just being racist and prejudiced. That's worth thinking about occasionally, I think. However, most of the video, particularly where it concerns Islam, is obviously pretty mired in ignorance. I don't really know what to say about that other than that it's hard to have a genuine dialogue when many people (on both sides, much of the time) seem to be constantly and willfully ignoring any knowledge that doesn't immediately fit for them.

Yeah, I second any recommendation for Modern Family. Obviously you have to view it as what it is, which is a relaxed sitcom, but within that genre it is great. I could not tell you the plot of any specific episode, but I have never come away from one disappointed, which pretty much makes it the perfect "quality without substance" TV show. I've been up and down with Community recently, and have been considering dropping it once the current season ends. However, I just watched the most recent episode, a Christmas/Glee-themed episode. It was brilliant. My faith in the show is restored, for now at least.

Bit of a tangent but I'm interested to hear you explain the idea of "subjective access". The example you gave would have actually made me use the term objective to describe our view of Tony. By that I mean that we essentially see everything about him, from an impersonal perspective, rather than just seeing his victims' point of view, for example. However, the things that we are learning about Tony from the examples you gave are part of the subjective view of Tony - things about what he might be thinking or feeling or explaining his motivations - so is that what you meant by subjective access? Alternatively, am I reading far too much in an incidental word choice?

The Uncharted games are actually great for playing with people around. Since they're so cinematic and generally visually interesting, they're almost as enjoyable to just watch as they are to play. I've played all three games in the presence of a friend who doesn't really play games herself, but finds watching many of them interesting.

How the Desmond thread has evolved is somewhat interesting. AC1 was obviously the introduction to the whole concept of Desmond and the Animus and his ancestors, while AC2 took it off in a whole new direction and brought the larger Assassins/Templars conflict into focus... Brotherhood doesn't really do much of anything with the Desmond thread except at the very end, where it suddenly makes a huge and important change. It's kind of bizarre and out of left field. I now haven't gone too far into Revelations, but there appear to be Desmond's Journey things that you get access to through picking up collectibles. So those may end up being important to that "real world" thread or not. By the way, I really hope that doesn't turn into a trend. I'm already considering semi-ignoring the Riddler stuff in Arkham City because there's just too much of it and the systems that expose it to you aren't brilliant. Yet if I do I miss out on seemingly some of the most interesting parts of the game. Now Revelations appears to be doing something similar. Not appreciated! Extra content that you have to go looking for is great, but not if it's a reward for vaguely wandering around the world looking for shiny things or, just as bad, repeatedly engaging with uninteresting mechanics to find them for you and just going and fetching them.

Watching the Colbert/Tyson interview now. In the introduction, the head of the school hosting the interview off-handedly referred to Romeo & Juliet as "American literature". Interesting.

I -think- it's a different screen, but who knows how much technology is shared? It seems really difficult to get considered opinions on monitors. I myself have no real frame of reference for them, and there are dozens at the size and price point I'm looking at. It's not even the case that each major company has one, each major company seems to have between three and six of the bloody things at any given size and type and price.

Found a decent deal on the Acer S240HLBID on Amazon during Cyber Monday week, does anyone have any experience with this monitor or know of a good site that has a review of it?

So far the out of Animus stuff in Revelations is actually still in-Animus, it's just on "Animus Island". You can hear people talking in the "real world" but not interact with them. That said, I'm still pretty early in the game.

How did you get on with that monitor, elmuerte? I'm looking at some myself with the intention of perhaps asking for contributions to a monitor fund for Christmas. I already have a 5:4 monitor so I'm looking for something widescreen (16:9 or 16:10) to complement it for games and videos and such. The monitor you got is probably somewhat over my budget, but if you like the brand I might take a more serious look at Dell. I'd also be interested in everyone else's feedback. I'm looking in the 22-24" size range, I think, and ideally for something capable of 1920x1080 so that I can use whichever resolution actually runs well in games rather than being hamstrung by my monitor. Anyone know of any somewhat affordable but still decent screens that fit the bill?

I'm near Manchester. As I said I did eventually find the pretzels, but they're out of stock. I put my email down on the list to hear from them when they're back in stock (hoping that that eventually happens). It seems like that product is just not really sold in the UK anymore, which explains the high prices and lack of stock in so many places.

I have never heard of CyberCandy. I will investigate immediately. Sorry, by "here" I did indeed mean "the UK", though I've been abandoned in the frozen northern wastes, I'm not a cushy Londoner like yourself. You all have butlers down there, right? Perhaps that's why I can't get cheap chocolate pretzels here, the caravans fear to cross too far into the untamed wilderness with such valuable goods. Edit: Just looked at CyberCandy, and after searching for "pretzels" there were no results. Cue sad face. Yet, I persisted, and eventually found they do indeed sell "Demets (formerly Nestle) Pretzel Flipz" - sounds good! "We're very sorry that this product is out of stock" - son of a...! Well, I can hardly blame people for wanting to eat it.

This may be a little out of left field, but does anyone remember Party of Five with enough clarity to give any thoughts on it? For some reason I have an urge to watch it, but with the benefit of hindsight is it worthwhile at all?