SteveThaiBinh

As others have said, I don't hate my country (the UK), I dislike some aspects of the country and a lot of things the government and people do. One thing I dislike is the way the British make stupid jokes about the French and Germans all the time. They're not funny, well-observed or original, but just because they're at the expense of the French and Germans, everybody laughs.

Melon Soda. Alas, I've never seen it outside Japan.

So Gamedaily isn't linked to IGN, right? This makes two independent rumours, right? I'm still cautiously optimistic.

Nope, Ewoks are too much saccharine for me. Jawas are cute, but with an edge, and they get my vote.

Off the top of my head, Arthur C. Clarke is a great writer of science fiction as opposed to science fantasy (if the distinction is important to you). John Wyndham was my favourite author growing up - The Kraken Wakes and The Chrysalids are particularly good. A film I really liked would be Gattaca, from the late 90s I think.

Do you feel that fewer Americans than in the past will just vote for 'the conservative candidate' because they identify themselves as conservatives, or liberals for a liberal, or Republicans for a Republican? One of the great changes in British politics in the last twenty-odd years has been the fall in this kind of party loyalty - more and more people go into General Elections undecided, prepared to be persuaded. Unfortunately, more and more of them ultimately don't bother to vote at all.

I saw this guy on FoxNews who uses 'secular' as a term of abuse. It's really quite funny, in an ominous kind of way. I'm a secular, and thus a blight on the face of the Earth the way he tells it. Not all members of political parties are to be found at the ideological extremes, but they do often fall into the trap of tribalism and lose site of reality. I went to a party conference once and found it pretty uncomfortable - it almost seemed as though people were egging each other on to extremes and intransigence. This thread is not odd.

The counter-argument would be that even good gameplay features become stale after several outings. More innovation would be welcome, but the industry doesn't seem to encourage it and most consumers don't seem to demand it or, if they do, able to make their demands heard. If Oblivion really is just Morrowind with better graphics (despite promises to the contrary), I will be disappointed. Surprised, too.

Are Dragon Age and Mass Effect really on for 2006?

I agree about full camera control. If the technology permits the player to have complete freedom, the designer shouldn't intervene to restrict that freedom. For key moments, sure, to create a cinematic feel, but not otherwise. In a similar vein, I hear that GalCiv2 has a completely user-definable interface, and there will soon be lots of user-made ones available to try; much better than the designer imposing one on the gamer. We are supposed to be living in an age of customisation and consumer choice, after all. The absense of toolsets can't really be called 'unacceptable' if the game sells anyway, but it's certainly contrary to the spirit of the age. It's not yet unacceptable to produce a partial voice game, but in a year or two it may well be - we're certainly headed that way. Adventure games now typically have full voiceover, and if NWN2 doesn't it will probably be one of the last RPGs not to. If you accept the 'unwashed masses' view of gamers so eloquently expressed by the fellow from RPGCodex yesterday, the trend must be in this direction and away from text. My principle concern is with dull, generic stories, but that won't change until more original writers are attracted to the gaming industry.

What are some of the main features that you're thinking of? What distinguishes modern as opposed to dated gameplay for you?

Dreamfall - Game of the Year for me. Broken Sword 4 - though I doubt it will be out so quickly, despite what the developer says. Galactic Civilizations 2 (already out, but I'm waiting for them to tweak it into perfection). Oblivion - I liked Morrowind, and hopefully this will be even better. Neverwinter Nights 2 - I'm hoping for Baldur's Gate 2 with pretty graphics.

The North Vietnamese beat the US by enduring, while support back in the US for the war withered away. That's still a defeat. Most Vietnamese people I know find it bizarre and ridiculous that some in the US still claim they didn't lose in Viet Nam.

As we Brits are able to retreat across the English Channel. That's the only reason we weren't conquered quickly like the French. Nothing to do with greater courage or military strength, I think. From what I've heard, we made exactly the same mistake as the French (and most governments), which is to prepare for the last war instead of the next one. Nothing new or surprising about it.

:'( I'm a sucker for a sad story. To the tune of On The Inside: He used to give me ROOfles I wish he could again But that was on the outside And things were different then

G0-T0 incapacitated the remote and did some alterations/sabotage that enabled him to freeze the remote on Malachor V. At least, that's my understanding from what I've read on-line. I was also utterly confused by the cut-scene when I saw it in-game. I wasn't helped by the animation in which the remote phases into the floor either.

There have been a few threads about this. The Viscis message doesn't happen before the Red Eclipse, but it doesn't automatically happen immediately after it either. Have you either raised or lowered your prestige with the Exchange sufficiently? You also need to exit and return to the main hub.

I agree, and I think he's right - they should have cut one of the planets (Korriban, perhaps) and spent the time getting the ending right. It would have made a world of difference. I don't remember if they even discussed the ending in the earlier post-mortem article.

Sure, sure. By the way, I live on the south coast of England - could you please try not to drop any bombs on us when you invade France? Cheers.

And US contractors with strong links to the Bush administration stood to gain enormously from the invasion and reconstruction effort. Does that mean that the US invaded Iraq for that reason? No, it doesn't. Nor did the French government oppose the war in Iraq because of its deals, open or clandestine, with Saddam. It opposed the war for a number of reasons which we can discuss, I think the main ones being that it thought the outcome would not be good (as has proved to be the case) and because it was so unpopular with the French people. Try not to assume the worst of your opponents. They are usually as sincere and well-intentioned as you are.

This is my understanding of it: In a rather amusing paradox, the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail are suing Dan Brown for copying 'their' ideas while maintaining that their book is non-fiction. If their book is fictional and the ideas are of their own imagining, they may have a case against Dan Brown. However, they claim their work to be non-fiction, based on research. If that is true, Dan Brown might easily have accessed the same sources for his novel. Therefore, in order to win their case, they must effectively admit that their book is fiction, and not non-fiction as they previously claimed. I don't think they have much of a chance, but there is a chance the court case will delay the release of the movie version.

GK3 drew heavily on Holy Blood, Holy Grail - the book was even featured in the game. The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail are currently suing Dan Brown in the UK courts for stealing their idea.

Is it possible that every movie in the Star Wars series was precisely as good as it needed to be, and no better?

My commiserations. Wow. I don't know about you guys, but I just lost twelve days. I'd better go check my medication.

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