Walsingham

I just realised that power costs are probably the biggest. My PC is running about 16 hours a day for either work or play. So having a lot of fans might not be very sensible. I mean, electricity is mad expensive at the moment in teh UK.

I may have already described this story. We were playing vampire, in whatsitthingy, you know the White Wolf universe where everything is terrible... thingy.... anyway. We were in apartheid South Africa where Mandela was shot by neo-nazis coming down the road from prison etc etc. We often used two referees and one player, to give a richer experience. One ref would handle mechanics and storyline. The other ref would play all the NPCs. Our man was masquerading as an anti-apartheid lawyer, living on the fringes of a big township. He'd been out and about his merry way, dropping into shebeens, and feasting on, well he was supposed to hunt drug dealers and informants, but he'd been snacking on anyone. So he heads home, having made no attempt to conceal himself, so naturally enough just after he gets home there is a knock at the door. "I look out the window" "You see a tan police truck, with a white policeman and a black policeman near it. They have shotguns out. You can just see the blue shirted back of a third policeman standing on your veranda." "Police!" "Yes! It may have something to do with the headless corpse not 200 yards from your house." "I change into a tiger!" "OK. Then what?" "I turn out the lights and pretend I'm not home." "But they saw you with all the lights on. They'll see you turn them off." "Then I'll turn off the lights AND hide under the bed! [immensely pleased with himself] "Fine. There is more knocking. [rolls] You also hear noises from the side of the house." "Hmmmm. I change back again, turn the lights on, and go to the door. I also blood buff or whatever so I'm ultra strong." "Ok." "I open the door" "A large fat police sergeant is there. He looks at you suspiciously, and says 'Excuse me, sir, but I was wondering if we could ask you some questions about a suspected murder not far from here.'" "Right. Um. I lean out, put one hand on his shoulder, then use my other hand to pull his head off.[rolls successfully]" "The policeman's still warm body slumps to the ground, as thick red blood fountains across the stoep. The two other policemen haven't yet established what just happened." "I close the door." "Then what" "Then I turn out the lights and hide under the bed. If they knock again, I'm not home." Needless to say the Army were called in, and he only escaped by running smack through one wall of his house, and into a river. But he would have been jihaded for sure if he hadn't been busy with coursework.

I was chatting with my cab driver this morning about this*. We decided the biggest problem is that US domestic policy is 50% tied to external foreign developments. But the US voting public, and possibly the majority of Congressmen, understand next to nothing about those developments. *Never knock cab drivers. They have a lot of time to think ,and listen to the news, and talk to a wide array of people, in addition to having usually had at least one career before. I some cab drivers above the average Member of Parliament.

I was hoping for something a la Stalker. You know? Weird anomalous phenomena, etc.

LOL For one second there I thought it was for real.

Had one half of my mouth descaled. Was surprisingly painful, but not as bad as it might have been. I now have half shiny and half old teeth. The re-shined ones look amazing. I really am having a complete clean-out of my teeth. Knowing my luck though I'll get in a fight and have them all knocked out just after I pay up the last installment.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway FO3 - because I have a childish, canine, facility for loyalty NWN2 - Storm of Zehir. Which I would look forward to more, but I'm too confident it will rule.

I think it's worth being absolutely crystal clear on this. To misquote Matt Stone: I hate piracy, but I really ****ing hate being made to leap through hoops when I have in fact paid my ****ing money. I put the money on the bedside table. YOU don't get to call the shots. (I may have been watching too much Zero Punctuation)

The thought occurs to me that perhaps the reason why we Euroweenies cause such a stink is that the US electorate is so vast and multifarious. Having only a few tiny channels to hear it on, makes it sound like a cacophany.

I salute you for your good grace in defeat. Truly in your case the loss was no humiliation, for your honour is intact.

Wait, how is an evolutionary algorithm incorrect? Because that's all the game is, right? I haven't played it, but that's what I understood it as. You can say the World was made different, but evolutionary algorithms fething work. That's not a matter of opinion, you can lilterally see it happening on a home computer.

There is a universial law that says that all game desginers must have their heads up their asses one fifth of all time. Otherwise games could be too awesome and they would destroy the universe. Man has a point. If they were flawless we would never stop playing them. Oh, wait.

Hey! It's already too crowded in here.

I used to be a lot more relaxed about this until I started doing pure brain work, and in particular buidling stuff that can get copied. Usually these are ideas, and procedures. Now, I agree that a guy who earns tuppence a week is not reducing my earning pool. HOWEVER, it seems rather bloody unfair that my paying customers should be paying so I can hand out free stuff. I have a family member who worked on a rather fine independent film. It was pirated when it became clear it was going to win awards. As a consequence the team who made the film weren't able to enjoy their success, which they richly deserved.

That's your reaction to everything. Oh god, don't remind me of that time we went for pizza.

I haven't played JA2. But, back on topic, if we're talking combat, surely there's a direct tension between realism and awesomeitude? If combat were realistic it would totally suck. And I'm not just talking getting hit. You'd have PTSD for years after playing a game.

I think Ben Affleck would be great as a ghoul. I don't see what the freaking point is. Morphine is a drug which has benefits. Otherwise why does the Australian government put it in medical kits for their fething soldiers? I avoid drugs because I don't agree with them, not because I close my eyes to their benefits. I don't see how pretending otherwise does aanything other than discredit counter-drug campaigns.

Curses! Beat Croatia 4-1.

Ditto that. I wonder what made her run the red light?

I've calmed down now, but I guess I understand your problem better.

I'm beginning to wonder if patches aren't an inevitable part of having masses of freeform content. I mean, sure other companies don't have to patch but generally their games contain about 10 fedex vanilla quests with endless goblin mashing. NWN2 had tonnes of odd content, like the Keep management, or that strange woman who fights you for no very good reason. With so much stuff you are bound to have emergent properties (you think you're adding 3+3, but something nearby square roots it because you need it to square root things normally). If that is true, and we have to choose between weird content and having to patch I'll take patching every time. You do have a really good point about dial-ups, though. Frankly I don't think ANYONE cares about dial-ups any more, but that's no excuse. I'd suggest sending out a CD with the patch in on request. Couldn't be too expensive, except possibly in admin. Of course I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't feel narked about the game getting bugs. But it's like getting caught in the rain. EDIT: If you think this is bad I just absentmindedly agreed to patch Company of Heroes. 1.8 GIGABYTES, and that's just install 1. The game now refuses to play at all until I've added every single remaining patch. This has taken nearly five hours, and I'm still not done at my fourth patch. What kind of total wanker would force you to patch before you could play when the game was working fine before the patch? It also now looks like I'm going to be wedged into online play every time I want to play. This is awful. POST-EDIT: SEVEN PATCHES IN, and still they keep coming. Time now six hours.

I also have a website that makes me ignore the Hadron collider, but posting it would violate forum rules.

I'm sure that England, fresh from their triumphant display over footballing superpowers Andorra, will have no trouble at all. I for one am heartily looking forward to another splendid performance from our favourite band of over-paid over-hyped mediocre primadonna losers, and I'm sure you are too. Hear hear!

He doesn't yet, because he hasn't faced the life-affirming experience of launching rockets about.

It doesn't if you wear a cape.