SteveThaiBinh

Not really. I have a friend whose hobby is assembling Ikea furniture, though. He doesn't need any of the stuff he buys, and he always ends up just giving it away, but he loves putting it together.

I have no hobby. I'm really sad about it. When I lived in Japan, I learned to play the koto: Then when I lived in Viet Nam, I learned the Dan Bau: I was hoping to learn something here - I fancy a switch to drums, maybe. Unfortunately, the Saudis are not so keen to invite foreigners to partake of their cultural heritage, and I can't find a teacher.

(w00t) Well, I guess I know what I'm playing next. Romance with Xan? The mind boggles.

Microsoft made the classic politician's statement - we don't currently have plans to increase prices. It leaves the door nicely open for change in the future, and I think most people understand that. For it to be a lie, you would need to prove that they had secretly-agreed plans to raise prices at the time when the initial statement was made, and that seems unlikely. I'm glad I didn't buy an XBox-360 just for Oblivion, though. It'd be gathering dust in the corner by now.

What are the NPC mods? Are they new characters, or greater interaction with the existing ones?

I'd quite like to know that, too... And I guess now I do. :ph34r:

Elgar's Sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, reconstructed from sketches and effectively co-written by Anthony Payne, and premiered last week at the Proms. Payne claims about 50% is his and 50% Elgar's. I like the opening fast march a lot better than the slow march, but perhaps it will grow on me as the others did.

It varies by country, I think. Not sure when it is in the US, though. A year or so ago, the newspapers in Britain published photographs of a developing foetus just before our 'cut-off point' for abortions (24 weeks). The photos showed the foetus more developed than many people had thought, and it led to some discussion in the newspapers and elsewhere about whether the cut-off point should be moved back - to 20 or 21 weeks into the pregnancy. No change in the law has come of it, though. I don't see how a line can be drawn on any scientific basis. Development is gradual and continuous, and any line has to be artificial. Nevertheless we do need one. We don't want to see abortions at 32 weeks where the baby might well survive if it were delivered, and to ban abortion entirely represents an intolerable restriction of the rights of the woman by government. We need the line, but the line is wherever we choose to put it, and has no greater legitimacy or basis in science than that. On the issue of euthanasia, I don't know whether the concept yet exists in US (federal or state) law. If this little girl's parents decided to go that route, they would surely be prosecuted for murder, but rightly so? After all, it's not even 'assisted suicide', as a child can hardly give informed consent.

Actually, no it isn't. It's nice if you do end up with the best person, but the point of the vote is that you end up with someone that everyone can accept, irrespective of their talents. They won the vote, therefore they have legitimacy, and people will (up to a point) accept the laws they make even if they didn't support them. After all, if I don't agree with what the current guy does, I can always campaign to unseat him at the next election. But if low voter turnout persists in the long term, it can undermine this legitimacy in many peoples' eyes. The guy at the top scraped through with barely one in five people actually voting for him, so what right does he have to start passing stupid laws and restricting our freedoms? Yes, I do mean you, Mr. Blair. :angry:

I think you know there isn't. :D If the mother were aware of an angry and possibly dangerous person near her womb, that would presumably provoke stress and various chemical reactions in her body that might then affect the foetus. That is at least plausible, though again that's not the same as having empirical evidence of real effects.

There are horsies, apparently. Or did you mean rideable horsies? Can you say 'Premium Module $2.99'? I'm sure Atari can. :D I hope the delay's just for a final polish. Maybe when the multi-player beta starts, rumours will start to leak out about how stable or bug-ridden the game is.

*draws breath* Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday dear Baley Happy Birthday to you Ok, where's my drink?

Characters finish Kotor 1 around level 19 or 20, and I find that Kotor 2 becomes boring once you hit those levels. I prefer starting again from level 1, and I wish Obsidian had held the Exile to lower levels for longer - the game is more interesting when every levelup is a major achievement.

In several democracies it's illegal not to vote, including Australia and Belgium I believe. Is voting just to win a million dollars worse than voting to avoid a fine?

This reminds me of the Boy David documentaries. It was about a little Peruvian boy with a disease that ate most of his face away, and the countless operations he underwent as they slowly constructed a face for him. He was adopted by the plastic surgeon, as a son and as a project, I suppose. I imagine there's a lot they can do for this little girl if the funding is there.

I downoaded the first part of a Baldur's Gate 2 speed run, and the guy must have the entire game memorised given how he zips through all the dialogue. It was impressive to watch for a very short while, but I don't imagine I'll ever try it. I suppose the next step for sites like gamefaqs or gamebanshee is to start having (searchable) videos of playthroughs, speed runs or otherwise, to accompany their text walkthroughs.

The whole Baldur's Gate saga, from Candlekeep to the Throne of Bhaal, is greater than the sum of its parts. I enjoy BG1 more because I know I'll be taking the same character through into BG2.

It's treating the symptom rather than the problem itself. The problem in many modern democracies is not low voter turnout, it's low popular involvement and interest in the political process, largely due to the behaviour of professional politicians. On the other hand, anything's worth a go. Perhaps it will stimulate debate and get people more interested in politics. It's a shame that everything new has to be denounced as illegal and dangerous before it's even tried.

Gothic 2 was fun, but difficult, and doesn't have a strong story. I never played the expansion pack, though I heard reasonably good things about it. Kaftan's comment about searching for creatures in the woods just so you could level up rings grimly true, though. I don't think I've ever played an RPG where I felt so weak relative to the monsters I was meeting. I actually quite liked that, though it was frustrating at times.

Yes, more than mine, too. I can see how the tiny hard drive would cause problems, though. Aren't there such things as external hard drives?

Excellent. I haven't heard anything about this since they announced it. I hope they bring Nico back. Any news about that? It won't be Broken Sword without her. Still Life is excellent, and I also recommend The Moment of Silence. The first Syberia is very good, and Kate Walker is one of my favourite game characters. The second one isn't as good, but still worthwhile if you enjoyed the characters and story of the first.

I hope so too, though Obsidian may not make as clean a break with NWN2 as they did with Kotor2. I don't know what Atari has planned for expansion packs or 'premium modules' or whatever - probably depends on sales of the core game - but Obsidian may not be finished with NWN2 for quite a while yet. I'm looking forward to getting more news about these two other games. I joined too late for the development of Kotor2, and don't visit the Bioware boards ( :ph34r: ), so it'll be nice to be around when developers are discussing their new projects on their own forum. An RPG set in a high school would probably sell very well in Japan, so you never know. :D

I would say so, yes. As a relatively infrequent resident of the UK, can I say that National Health dentistry is a truly marvellous institution? Every time I use it I think it can't possibly get any worse, and every time I return from two or three years abroad to find it has, and then some. I recently registered with an NHS dentist, and after a four month wait to get on their books, I was told there was a five month wait before I could get any treatment. I gather this is actually much better service than many areas of the country. Anyway, I went private. My credit card still hasn't recovered.

I wonder if the games shop has Warlords yet. I also wonder if Stardock will be able to fix the problem I'm having downloading Galciv2, or whether it's something to do with the Saudi censor/firewall.

Civ4 again. Baba yetu, yetu uliye Mbinguni yetu, yetu amina... I wonder if the games shop has Warlords yet.