Walsingham

Given your employer I'm not surprised. Hang in there, though. Worked 12 hours yesterday, scrambling around, reassuring people, scaring others, so on and so forth. Frankly I'm at the stage where I'd accept just about any measures if it would just stop the panic. Even an actual crash seems better than this endless uncertainty. At least an actual crash could be recovered from. This just seems to drag on and on.

Sounds interesting. You've sold me on seeing it, anyway.

I think that's an extremely insightful point, if I can say so without sounding too full of myself. In fairness is this because the roles aren't as clearly delineated in game production? I honestly don't know.

Received message "14/88" in message from 'obyknven', and nothing else. Apparently this is a white supremacist greeting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words Learn something new every day.

The courier's mile is certainly scary. I went in,, just about managed to kill two deathclaws, and ran away.

What the Twisted Helix is that object on the right? ~ Also: I just found out that NASA are planning on bombarding me from space with chunks of satellite. WTF!? Health and Safety won't let me climb ladders unaided, but it's fine with hurtling chunks of metal at the planet?

It occurs to me that the mixed reviews are 100% predictable. Each of the DLCs has its own emphasis on some aspect of gameplay. Honest Hearts was pretty with weak story, Old World Blues was open with plenty of humour, Dead Money was dark and story emphasising, Lonesome is combat hefty. There's something for everyone, but equally for some people they're only going to like one in four. I try to take each on its emphasised merits and am much happier. As mkreku says, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. I can't think of any other game I've played so much, nor been happy to consider replaying. Lonesome road at level 10, with a passel of stealth boys, and enough jet and buffout to sink a battleship.

Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else that Raithe's nemesis has taken the form of a small alsatian puppy?

Weirdest post so far this month.

Yo u may find the time element vastly improves if you dial up to hard difficulty and hardcore mode. Exploration, scouting, planning ambushes... I think I've put in at least twice your count, and I'm not done yet. Plus the underground bits are simply terrifying. Never been so glad to see a simulated sky!

You may be being a little unfair. If I think about me going into a subordinate role at some paper warehouse you can bet I'll need careful managing. I'll work damned hard, but I have to be treated like a person. No one's going to just shout bollocks at me and get away with it. The awful truth is that most managers are totally rubbish at their job, and the thought of that being exposed is terrifying for them. Personally I like to think I cope with older and more talented people very well. I'm lazy, so I love having them around. Clear intent, open eyes and a closed mouth, plus simple courtesies like tea work wonders. All of which only adds to my annoyance when I see the resource being bodge-handled.

I worry because (without going into detail) I need to be right about how its going to go, both for my own prosperity and the prosperity of others. The chap I mentioned earlier, for example. I can tell when someone's struggling, and the chap seems really first rate. If we took him on then he'd be a good fit and addition. But can WE afford to? Can I pass him to someone else? Is everyone I know slowly slipping into disaster? If so, maybe I should be going off on drastic rethinks etc etc. The ramifications of a second serious slump are immense.

The job market is insane right now. I just had a CV in front of me and I was thinking "No way can we afford this guy" then I read he was being put forward at about 10k less than I expected. I don't know about you chaps, but I'm losing a lot of sleep over the economy right now. It's not just lowering demand, but people are acting NUTS. Panic, underinvesting, gutting their own service capabilities...

When would THAT happen?

Two points: 1. Irrespective of his right to do so, attempting to rip up and destroy all trace of the original version which inspired so many people is _bloody weird_. 2. It's nonsense to assert that it's George Lucas' movie. It was made by a whole team of creators. Three points: 3. What made the original film cool is that you had all the action of a black and white war movie, good guys and bad guys, plus a bunch of 70s kung fu stylings, and the odd special effects candy. Plus some awesome new notions like destroying whole planets. The whole 'kids movie' lie is just because of the franchising potential.

You know that bit about "...and lose, and start again at your beginnings. Yet never breathe a word about your loss..." Well this is me angry breathing. I know I'm hardly the only person in the world struggling to cope with the blind institutional panic gripping the world right now. But it's still bloody annoying.

I should like to point out that the most expensive paid assassination I've ever heard of was for about 50000 USD. We could each chip in a dime... We were all thinking it.

That is pretty cool. Not sure how they did the lightning effects in game...

So you haven't seen the NOOO! yet at the end of Return of the Jedi? George Lucas has to be the only film director ever who I'd cheerfully lock in my basement and beat with dead racoons. It's as if he's deliberately attempting to destroy his own creation. I can't explain it any other way.

Holy crap. This really is the future, isn't it? As in 'the fuuuuutuuuure'.

I certainly don't (tend to) get into fights on my own account. But there's a bloody minded streak in me which won't (normally) back down. Plus I have an incredibly dumb streak which I'm quite proud of which catapults me into situations where I reckon one side is being bullied. Apparently my Irish grandad used to do the same thing. So I guess if I get knifed up doing it at least I'm carrying on the family tradition. On the other hand I can usually see the other guy's point of view, even when he's a drunken idiot. Scratch that. BECAUSE he's a drunken idiot. And I am too. ~ We don't have fraternities in the UK, as such. But I have been told by Americans that a lot of my stories from uni sound like frat stories. What I'd say in defence of it, which isn't very obvious to people who were more retiring at uni is: free application of energy. A lot of the things you probably think of as being good about uni come from free application of energy. All that thinking and drug taking and *ahem* experimentation comes because you have the courage and momentum and raw energy to do them. 'Frat' behaviour means doing dumb stuff, which loosens the ties which bind. It also gives you a bunch of like-minded goons who have done the same stuff. It lends courage, and comfort to the process. And yes, some bloody weevil-brained asshats will often try and hijack the system and turn it all fascist. But it isn't always that way. At least, that's my theory.

I don't just believe in evolution as an explanation of species development, but as a powerful paradigm for understanding other phenomena, such as the spread of culture and ideas. However, as Numbers says, it is far from 'proven' as such. It's not mental to disbelieve it. But I would say it is mental to assert that there is a rational competitive superiority in theories like intelligent design over evolution. I also think that if the truth is something other than evolution it is going to struggle unless it incoporates large parts of evolutionary theory. Thee are just too many good bits, such as apparent evolutionary trends in fossil records, to account for. I also find it ferociously ironic that anyone 'believes' in evolution at all. It's not a faith. Evolution, like all science, is a component of well organised _doubt_.

False dichotomy, Krez. If you need to make sure you get a call, then switch it to vibrate and hold it in one hand. The point with the training, BTW, was that one learns to check things, not assume things. Is there a round chambered? What time is parade? Are my socks on top of my gear? Is my phone actually off? I'm not making a big deal out of it, just saying.

But then it's too late, because if you fix the typos, your post is forever tainted with that ugly little edit message. I wish they'd make it like on other boards where the edit message doesn't pop up if you edit within a few minutes of posting. It's unnecessary. Nay, the edit message separates the men from the boys. How else are we supposed to know who kept rewriting his post into something eloquent and who's a bona fide natural at it. I have to agree with Orogun.